[Warning: The next incorporates spoilers for Season four of 13 Causes Why. This text additionally incorporates discussions of police brutality and racism in America.]
13 Reasons Why has been a polarizing collection from the beginning. Whereas some praised the Netflix drama’s first season for partaking in an trustworthy dialog about suicide, others criticized the collection for dealing with the subject material in ways in which finally glorified it. Within the years since, the present has continually made what amounts to half-measures, makes an attempt to handle critical subjects like rape, violence in faculties, and psychological well being that solely go half the space. Within the present’s fourth and last season, which dropped Friday, that unlucky pattern continues, this time mishandling the subjects of police brutality and racism, a transfer that additional cements its legacy of doing extra hurt than good.
The eighth episode of the season includes a protest and riot at the highschool after a faculty useful resource officer — a legislation enforcement officer stationed within the college — makes an attempt to arrest Season four newcomer Diego (Jan Luis Castellanos), a Latinx pupil engaged in a battle, however not Justin (Brandon Flynn), a white pupil additionally concerned, who occurs to be the one who really turned their disagreement right into a bodily altercation. When Justin tries to intervene to assist Diego, issues escalate, and the SRO rapidly pulls his weapon on each teenagers however nonetheless solely arrests Diego. This depiction of discrimination and extreme use of drive towards an individual of colour arrives at a time of nice unrest in America, lower than two weeks after George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, died when a white police officer knelt on his neck for almost 9 minutes. Floyd’s loss of life whereas in police custody, in addition to the police capturing of Breonna Taylor and the capturing of Ahmaud Arbery, sparked protests across the globe in help of Black Lives Matter and police reform.
In 13 Causes Why, the actions of a racist deputy equally function the catalyst for the riot at Liberty Excessive; the scholars stroll out after the principal (Steven Weber) ignores their issues about Diego being handled like a prison, and he assures them the officer will likely be “disciplined, if applicable.” Nevertheless, the cop’s bigotry isn’t what’s galvanized the scholars to revolt — it is simply the final straw. All season, the scholars had seen an elevated authority presence in what gave the impression to be an try to make the varsity safer: SROs, metallic detectors, safety cameras, and even a dean of self-discipline have been put in within the wake of the rapes and deaths of a number of college students. There was additionally an energetic shooter drill in Episode 6 that nobody knew was a drill — not even the academics — till the top of the episode, which led Clay (Dylan Minnette) to have a nervous breakdown and be despatched to the hospital for psychiatric analysis. All of this led to a tense setting for the scholars, and the riot that erupts after Diego is arrested is much less about racial discrimination or the brutal approach he’s handled by a white deputy — he’s repeatedly thrust towards lockers along with being the goal of racist remarks — than it’s the end result of a season-long story concerning the elevated presence of the sheriff’s division as a part of a misguided try to maintain college students secure. In impact, 13 Causes Why makes use of a racist cop as a catalyst after which fails to sentence or barely even acknowledge the racist legislation enforcement system that allows this overreach.
Jan Luis Castellanos and Brandon Flynn, 13 Causes Why
SROs have been in place in faculties throughout the U.S. because the 1960s. Supporters argue their presence is a essential protecting measure, particularly with the rise of college shootings and gun violence, however critics say they do much more hurt than good, and statistics again this up. In one study in Connecticut, Black and Latinx college students have been extra prone to be arrested and funneled into the prison justice system by means of what is named the school-to-prison pipeline when an SRO was in place at a faculty. In reality, the arrest price of Latinx college students at faculties using SROs was six occasions the speed of arrests at faculties with out SROs. That is much like what the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund says, which is that college students of colour are disciplined much more harshly than their friends, with Black college students being “almost thrice as prone to be suspended, and Latino college students are almost one-and-a-half occasions as prone to be suspended, as their white friends.”
It appeared as if 13 Causes Why was poised to handle this matter when Diego was arrested and Justin was not, however the present barely acknowledges the deputy or his racism within the last two episodes of the season. After the riot, Jessica (Alisha Boe), who’s biracial, explains the scholars’ actions have been in opposition to an “oppressive police state trampling on college students’ rights” and claims that as the varsity tried to resolve the battle that led to the protest, college students of colour have been singled out in questioning. However that is it. Nothing else is ever mentioned concerning the incident with the racist SRO, systemic racism, or using drive towards college students of colour at Liberty. The present’s weak try to painting the unfavorable outcomes of over-policing minority communities, if certainly it was an try to take action, can also be undermined by earlier episodes that glorify police as cool-headed mentors and white saviors.
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Earlier within the season the collection hinted {that a} deputy was concentrating on Tony (Christian Navarro), one other Latinx pupil whose household was deported the season prior, however the deputy was revealed to be all in favour of introducing Tony to the world {of professional} boxing, which led to a scholarship supply from a university in Nevada. And, on the finish of the season, Sheriff Diaz (Benito Martinez) comforts a distraught Clay when he bursts into the sheriff’s station and claims to have a gun as a way of getting somebody to hearken to and acknowledge his ache. Clay, a white teen, isn’t punished for his actions, neither is he harmed in any approach. It is onerous to imagine that an individual of colour would have been handled the identical approach.
By focusing solely on the goodness or badness of particular person legislation enforcement officers, the collection misses the mark on the large image of systemic racism in legislation enforcement. Diego’s arrest is a straightforward opening to handle institutional racism as a part of its dialogue of SROs in faculties, however 13 Causes Why appears unconcerned with addressing the racism prevalent in America’s institutional constructions and the tradition of concern it creates for younger folks of colour; as a substitute, the present limits itself to usually condemning an overstepping of authority in an try to create safer faculties. It is ignorant and irresponsible to make use of a racist cop as a conduit for a dialogue concerning the overreach of legislation enforcement after which fully ignore systemic racism within the ensuing dialog.
13 Causes Why
It is onerous to imagine the present may make issues worse after such an apparent failure, nevertheless it does, as a result of the framing of the protest and riot are additionally largely by means of Clay’s eyes; he and Jessica are the leaders of the walkout and even instigate a riot towards the native sheriff’s division, who’re fitted out in what seems to be riot gear, however it’s Clay who finally offers a rousing speech to the group of teenagers and incites their anger. “They will attempt to make us suppose that we’re the issue,” the white teen shouts right into a bullhorn whereas atop a automotive. “However we’re not the issue. We go to the varsity that they constructed for us. We reside within the society that they made for us. And sh– is damaged. Sh– is fallacious. They usually cannot repair it. They will not. So it is our flip now. We will make it proper if we’ve to burn it down and begin over.”
The truth that we see all of this occur by means of Clay’s viewpoint isn’t a surprise — Clay is the protagonist and our entry into this narrative — however the present has used different factors of entry earlier than. Clay is white and privileged and has benefited from this his whole life, and due to this fact has much less to concern from the police. When he facilities himself in a protest about police brutality as a substitute of elevating the issues of his classmates of colour, it is as a result of he and the present have the identical downside: Neither one is all in favour of partaking meaningfully with systemic racism.
The writers of 13 Causes Why couldn’t have recognized after they have been crafting this season what would occur in the actual world by the point it premiered. They could not know the brand new episodes could be launched within the midst of worldwide protests towards systemic racism, police brutality, and the murders of Black women and men. However whereas public consciousness could also be heightened, these points will not be new to American society. There is no excuse for utilizing racism as an affordable plot level after which forgetting it exists. 13 Causes Why may have and will have finished higher, particularly because the present has been criticized for its dealing with of delicate subjects previously. This season’s half-baked dialog about over-policing is but another excuse the present’s lasting legacy will not be that it compelled viewers to have highly effective conversations about hard-to-talk-about subjects, however slightly that it didn’t go far sufficient when it did.
13 Causes Why is now streaming on Netflix.