Love Is Not the Answer to White Supremacy on Underground‘s “Citizen”

In this country, who is allowed to fight back—with force, violence and/or rage—and who is expected to turn the other cheek? Who is allowed to go to war, and who is supposed to protest peacefully? Who gets to be angry in the face of injustice, and who gets to champion love, hope and light? America has always had a double standard when it comes to violence, and from the time I’ve understood this, I’ve had a problem with America.

Son of Baldwin recently said, “A one-by-one genocide is the kind that will escape the analysis and condemnation of history.” Earlier this week, we learned about the killing of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards at the hands of a Texas police officer (whose name has not been released yet, because he is protected in every way under American law), and I thought about a question I asked last year: Why Shouldn’t Black America Revolt? At what point do we thank those who came before us for protesting quietly, for sitting in at lunch counters, for being beaten by cops in the street, for walking into schools with white men, women and children screaming and spitting on them—but decide that we are not going to fight back with love for our enemies and nonviolence against our oppressors? At what point will we decide that we are, in fact, at war? Just because black people are not being rounded up in large numbers and shot (though we are indeed being rounded up), it doesn’t mean we’re not at war. Only when black people believe that they are still being systematically destroyed will we allow ourselves to embrace the very natural rage that comes from such realizations, and literally fight back.

But white supremacy is a helluva drug (and so is the fear that comes with it), and even during the time of slavery, those who wanted to revolt had a difficult time trying to convince other enslaved people that they were at war with white America. Underground has always been a show that celebrates black revolt, violent and otherwise, and in Season Two—with the introduction of Harriet Tubman and John Brown’s followers—we’re getting even more talk about the necessity of violence. In this season’s “Minty,” Harriet brilliantly captured the distinctive and purposeful violence of a slave revolt:

“Slavery ain’t just a sin, it’s a state of war… Violence with no cause is brutality. But beatin’ back against those tryna kill you? That’s hope. That’s prayer.”

In “Citizen,” Elizabeth takes the reins and proves her commitment to the cause. Now, if this were a different show, or a show I didn’t watch regularly, I might roll my eyes at the idea of one of the few white characters being presented as one of the most militant. But this is Underground, and the writers have done their due diligence, allowing the rage of our black characters to take center stage. So I’m excited to see Elizabeth, still grieving her husband’s murder and newly inspired by John Brown’s crew, to take up arms. She clashes with Georgia because she doesn’t want to sit around and wait for another attack from the white men in town. She no longer believes that there’s a way to get through to these people, and even connects with Cato (oh, shady-ass Cato) in a conversation about fear in the face of white supremacy: “The idea that they could—knowing that they can do, have done and will do whatever they want.”