EXCLUSIVE: Is systemic racism still a thing?
The short answer is yes. And for the long answer, well, that’s something that Jason George and Todd Grinnell are unpacking in a video from Hollywood, Health & Society and USC Annenberg’s Norman Lear Center, which Deadline is debuting exclusively.
“[Racism is] still baked into our society, certainly on a personal level, but on a systemic level, these laws that were created after slavery was abolished to keep former slaves from being able to advance in society, were baked in to our systems, and still are there,” Kate Folb, director of Hollywood, Health & Society, told Deadline.
She revealed it took nearly a year to get the script right for the 9-minute video in which the two actors take viewers from the Civil War to modern day, illustrating how racism and the desire to protect slavery influenced the laws and systems that still control the United States today.
The goal of the video, George says, is to get across the message that “it is nothing that you, individually, should be ashamed of because you didn’t do it, unless you are actively holding slaves or actively preventing people from getting housing because of the color their skin, etc, etc. But it’s just something that needs to be acknowledged as fact, and we need to not run from it.”
The country has gone through somewhat of a racial reckoning in the last few years, after the murder of George Floyd prompted massive, widespread protests during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Not only that, but the nation has, on some level, been forced to confront its racist foundations many times over the last several decades.
The concept of structural racism can be traced back more than 100 years and, in the age of social media, one might wonder how anyone wouldn’t know about it by now. But, George and Grinnell say that any frustration they feel about those who remain uneducated on the matter is trumped by their desire to see a change.
“You can be upset that people don’t know what you expect them to know, or you can try and solve the problem. At the end of the day, I think the problem with where our country is right now is too many people are trying to win some philosophical political cage match, instead of actually rolling up sleeves, getting together, having a conversation and trying to solve the problem,” George said. “It’s a real thing for people to feel [burdened], because they feel like, ‘I have to take on this extra responsibility. I just don’t have the energy to even get into it with you.’ And I understand that. But at the end of the day, if I want the problem solved, I’ll find some energy.”
Both actors agreed that they were on board with the idea from the beginning, not only because they resonated with the idea, but also because they are already doing this type of work in other projects. George has helped both Station 19 and Grey’s Anatomy tell swaths of stories about social issues, as has Grinnell, especially with One Day at a Time.
Audiences spend hours with characters over the course of a season and, hopefully, when the time comes to educate them or challenge their views, they’re open to the idea because they see these characters as their friends. As welcoming, consistent faces on TV, George and Grinnell hope that their participation in this video might do the same.
“When Ben Warren got pulled over in Station 19 — we use art to relate to people. Either we see ourselves in them, or we look up to them… When I watched that episode, I’m like, ‘That’s my guy,’” Grinnell explained. “I’ve been following that dude for years on this show. He’s great. He feels like a friend. Then all of a sudden, when your friends in jeopardy. It feels like an assault. It’s astonishing what these shows can do sometimes. We’re lucky to be a part of them all.”
This certainly isn’t the first time that the organization has tackled sensitive subjects, having consulted on many episodes of television on surrounding racism, women’s reproductive health, LGBTQ+ rights and more, from Castle to How to Get Away with Murder to General Hospital.
In June, Hollywood, Health & Society and USC Annenberg’s Norman Lear Center teamed up at ATX Festival in Austin, Texas to present stage readings of episodes of Maude and Good Times that tackled abortion and systemic racism, respectively. Both struck a chord with the live audience and felt quite a bit more timely than one might expect from a 50-year-old episode of television.
“That’s, to me, is what makes those episodes, or all of [Lear’s] shows, really so iconic,” Folb said of their ability to hold up a mirror to the present day. “There were so many lines that just fit right in with today.”
George and Grinnell will be continuing the discussion on structural racism at Hollywood, Health and Society and the Norman Lear Center‘s “Do The Write Thing” event Wednesday night alongside Steve Harper and Erika Green Swafford.
It’s part of a series of similar events that bring Hollywood creatives and prominent figures together to spotlight marginalized groups and foster conversation about how they are depicted in film and television.
The actors think that, through both the video and the conversation, “maybe [people] can unlearn some things and reassess,” Grinnell said. “I think if we are not active in these conversations, active in dismantling racism, then we are complicit.”
