Grey’s Anatomy tackled unconscious bias and wrongful police shootings in their episode this week, with one of the main character’s gives “the talk” to her young black son.
The episode, which ran Thursday, showed the doctors facing a wrongful shooting when a young black boy comes to emergency room after being shot. The young man was spotted breaking into his own house in a wealthy neighborhood after he was locked out. He was then shot by police while reaching for a phone in his pocket.
“It became very clear to me as I’m raising my 4-year-old black son that he will have different experiences in life no matter how much I’m in an upper-socioeconomic part of society,” episode writer Zoanne Clack told The Hollywood Reporter. “No matter what school he’s in or who his friends are, he’s still going to be seen as black boy and black man and that will alter his experience from other social groups.”
Her realization comes to life in a scene where Dr. Miranda Bailey, played by Chandra Wilson, has to sit down with her husband to have “the talk” with their son Tuck. They teach him what how to react if he is ever stopped by the cops.
“I am William George Bailey Johnson. I am 13 years old and I have nothing to harm you,” Tuck is taught to say as his parents drive home the fact that he should never talk back or make sudden movements with police among other teachings.
“Everything we’re saying to you, we’re saying because we want you to come home again and grow up to be anything you want to be,” they say.