Black-Ish has never been afraid to tackle even the most difficult of storylines — and it will continue to do so with Donald Trump in office.
Earlier this year, the ABC series aired a thought-provoking, powerful episode focused on police brutality, a challenging subject for any show to discuss, let alone a family sitcom. With Trump's election win stirring up tensions for many Americans, Black-Ish creator Kenya Barris states that the series won't retreat from participating in the discussions happening around the country.
Barris spoke to NPR and revealed that the election has sparked a renewed importance in the show speaking to Americans about real, often difficult, stuff.
"From Tuesday night to Wednesday morning, I think my show changed," says Barris of life after the election. "We have to talk about things that people might not want to talk about openly. We have to dig in deeper and stay later and have more real conversations and argue with ourselves more...it's not just TV for us anymore."
Barris is hoping that his show will help create a bridge of understanding on both sides of the political spectrum.
"[My writers and I] have been having back and forths, because it's so easy for us to be like [Trump voters] are crazy, they're nuts," says Barris of the left-leaning writers' room. "[But] half the country is not crazy. There may be crazies out there. But it does not open the conversation, it does not make the country more united by saying that everything they possibly feel is wrong. It's not. They just feel differently. We need to open our conversation up to understand what they're feeling, so that they open up [to us.]"
In times of uncertainty, it's refreshing to see a television show placing importance on universal understanding.
Listen to the entire interview, below:
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