When They See Us, a four part Netflix series directed by Ava DuVernay, is what we did not know we needed. For many black and brown people in the United States it is a horror film, embodying the fears that are behind ‘the talk’ that so many families have, especially with their boys. Parents sit their children down to guide them on interaction with police, shattering their innocence by informing them that someone could perceive them as threatening even if they are innocent. The precariousness of this conversation is riddled with the spirit of just in case wrapped in a prayer that the day does not come.
In 1989 Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, and Korey Wise were all between the ages of 14 and 16. Just out of 8th grade to sophomores in high school, the then boys lives changed on a spring night in Harlem.
While I had originally heard of the Central Park 5, I did not realize how young the boys actually were. The coverage of their stories portrayed them as ‘grown boys’ at the wrong place at the wrong time. However, they were indeed children. It made me think of the innocence that still radiated off my peers at their ages, desperate to be grown, but still very much not. Awkward, but faking it till we made it. Trying to be comfortable in our skin even though we weren’t. Full of anticipation for the future, even if we weren’t sure where it would lead.
The 5 young boys at the center of the case were robbed of the opportunity to even dwell in that adolescent stage. That is what I think of when I reminisce on the great body of work that is, When They See Us. No matter who these young men were, no matter who they wanted to be, they were victims of a pipeline that forced them to embody statistics, plaguing them as indeed young, black, and disposable.
The central park jogger case was that of the brutal rape of young white woman who was viciously attacked on her normal evening run. Left for dead, she was found with little hope that she would survive. Miraculously, she did. However, she had no recollection of her attack. There is a part in When They See Us that depicts her entering the court room to take the witness stand. Yusef appears to murmur to himself prompting Antron to ask him what he was doing. Yusef answers, “I am praying she remembers.” In that moment my breath is taken away with how high the stakes were. Even though I know how the story ends, I am still captivated inwardly pleading for a different outcome.
