“American Crime” Offers An Unapologetic Look At Race Issues In The U.S.

With dialogue like, “You wish you were white so they would like you better,” John Ridley, who earned an Oscar for the 12 Years a Slave screenplay, is adding to network television’s already much talked about diverse new offerings, but with a much harder punch.
Tony (Johnny Ortiz) as he gets placed into juvenile detention on American Crime. Felicia Graham / ABC
The fact that American Crime premiered the day after the Department of Justice announced criminal charges would not be brought against a former Ferguson, Missouri, police officer for the death of Mike Brown is purely coincidental. The case has forced the country to talk about how crime and punishment play out in America, and it’s one that has dominated headlines for more than seven months now.


American Crime is the latest network television show to put race front and center, and it could be the jumping-off point for more fiery conversations. The series, which debuted on ABC Thursday night, centers on the murder of a war vet and the brutal assault of his wife, both of whom are white. And when a drug-addicted black man, his drug-addicted white girlfriend, a Mexican-American teenager, and a Mexican man who has been in trouble with the law before are revealed as suspects, it quickly becomes clear that American Crime will go to uncomfortable places with regards to race, forcing viewers to consider their own prejudices as the characters do. Obviously, the series is timely as hell, and out of all of the new shows to join the network TV landscape with diverse casts this season, American Crime, created by 12 Years a Slave’s Oscar-winning screenwriter John Ridley, is the one that gut-punches its audience with its approach to racial and economic issues.
In the show’s premiere, for example, grieving mother Barb Hanlon (Felicity Huffman) speaks tersely to her ex-husband Russ Skokie (Timothy Hutton) as she reminds him of what he put her through: succumbing to a gambling addiction, losing all they had as a family, and forcing her — “a white mother and her two white kids” — to live in public housing. In the upcoming March 12 episode, Barb begins to unravel at the very thought of her war vet son not getting the same public empathy and outcry that someone like Brown, Jordan Davis, or Trayvon Martin received when each of the three black teens was killed by someone who wasn’t black, signaling what many believe to be a larger problem with race relations in America. As a result, American Crime feels like a sociological experiment, brazenly forcing its audience to see another point of view — even when you’re dead-set that what you believe is right.
The creator of American Crime, John Ridley, at a screening of his new show in February. Matt Petit / ABC
Clearly, the new series isn’t deliciously campy like Empire, familiarly funny like Black-ish or Fresh off the Boat, or whimsical like Jane the Virgin. On American Crime, we see how infractions are handled with regard to race, class, and gender through the drama’s meth addicts, black cops, white cops, white parents, Latino parents, prosecutors, victims, white drugs dealers, and Latino drug dealers. And considering the current social justice climate, American Crime feels like a multifaceted docuseries, putting a face to all sides of the equation. In effect, Ridley has taken Facebook fights, political talking-head jabs, and grassroots protesters and included all of those vantage points into American Crime in grand, dramatic fashion.
Thus far, Huffman’s character seems to be the most egregious, her language constantly peppered with racially provoking intentions. She negatively reacts to being questioned by a black female detective about the idea that her dead son could have possibly been a drug dealer himself. And when her ex-husband tells her one of the suspects is possibly Latino, she asks, “Some illegal?” “No, just Hispanic,” he replies.
A courtroom scene from the March 12 episode of American Crime. Felicia Graham / ABC
Because of its unfiltered dialogue and storytelling, American Crime could be more effective than Empire or Black-ish in changing minds, or at least helping people see another perspective. Ridley doesn’t only tap into the real conversations people are having today, he puts them front and center and basically says, “Now deal with it.” That’s what it feels like when Alonzo Gutierrez (Benito Martinez) can’t believe his teen son Tony (Johnny Ortiz) is being held in a juvenile detention center, and that, as his father, he doesn’t know how to legally protect his son because he failed to ask questions about the judicial system and didn’t know that his son didn’t have to speak to detectives and was entitled to a lawyer. In next week’s episode, Alonzo – who embodies the hardworking, “stay out of trouble so you can succeed” character we see often with immigrant stories — is questioned by his daughter about his allegiance to being brown. “You wish you were white so they would like you better,” she yells at him, admonishing her father for trying to assimilate.
On American Crime, everyone has a voice — some of which may make viewers cringe, cheer, or cry — and they use it to talk about who we are, the way we live, and the sacrifices that come with our choices and actions. Yes, the show asks a lot of its viewers, but that’s because it deals with convoluted, contemporary issues that we haven’t quite figured out how to resolve yet.

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Sandhurst's sheikhs: Why do so many Gulf royals receive military training in the UK? A parade outside the building at Sandhurst Continue reading the main story In today's Magazine The death list that names 5,000 victims Is this woman an apostate? Voices from a WW1 prison camp The Swiss selfie scandal Generations of foreign royals - particularly from the Middle East - have learned to be military leaders at the UK's Sandhurst officer training academy. But is that still a good idea, asks Matthew Teller. Since 1812, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, on the Surrey/Berkshire border, has been where the British Army trains its officers. It has a gruelling 44-week course testing the physical and intellectual skills of officer cadets and imbuing them with the values of the British Army. Alongside would-be British officers, Sandhurst has a tradition of drawing cadets from overseas. Many of the elite families of the Middle East have sent their sons and daughters. Perhaps the most notable was King Hussein of Jordan. Continue reading the main story Find out more Matthew Teller presents Sandhurst and the Sheikhs, a Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4, on Wednesday 27 August 2014 at 11:00 BST It will be available on iPlayer shortly after broadcast Four reigning Arab monarchs are graduates of Sandhurst and its affiliated colleges - King Abdullah of Jordan, King Hamad of Bahrain, Sheikh Tamim, Emir of Qatar, and Sultan Qaboos of Oman. Past monarchs include Sheikh Saad, Emir of Kuwait, and Sheikh Hamad, Emir of Qatar. Sandhurst's links have continued from the time when Britain was the major colonial power in the Gulf. "One thing the British were excellent at was consolidating their rule through spectacle," says Habiba Hamid, former foreign policy strategist to the rulers of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. "Pomp, ceremony, displays of military might, shock and awe - they all originate from the British military relationship." Sheikh Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa, King Abdullah, Sultan Qaboos Sandhurst alumni: King Hamad of Bahrain, King Abdullah of Jordan and Sultan Qaboos of Oman It's a place where future leaders get to know each other, says Michael Stephens, deputy director of the Royal United Services Institute, Qatar. And Sandhurst gives the UK influence in the Gulf. "The [UK] gets the kind of attention from Gulf policy elites that countries of our size, like France and others, don't get. It gives us the ability to punch above our weight. "You have people who've spent time in Britain, they have… connections to their mates, their teachers. Familiarity in politics is very beneficial in the Gulf context." "For British people who are drifting around the world, as I did as a soldier," says Brigadier Peter Sincock, former defence attache to Saudi Arabia, "you find people who were at Sandhurst and you have an immediate rapport. I think that's very helpful, for example, in the field of military sales." The Emir of Dubai Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum with his son after his Passing Out Parade at Sandhurst in 2006 Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Emir of Dubai, with his son in uniform at Sandhurst in 2006 Her Majesty The Queen's Representative His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, The Emir of Qatar inspects soldiers during the 144th Sovereign's Parade held at The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on April 8, 2004 in Camberley, England. Some 470 Officer cadets took part of which 219 were commissioned into the British Army Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar until 2013, inspects soldiers at Sandhurst in 2004 Emotion doesn't always deliver. In 2013, despite the personal intervention of David Cameron, the UAE decided against buying the UK's Typhoon fighter jets. But elsewhere fellow feeling is paying dividends. 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Over the years donations like this have saved the UK taxpayer a considerable amount of money." But what happens when Sandhurst's friends become enemies? In 2001, then-prime minister Tony Blair visited Damascus, marking a warming of relations between the UK and Syria. Shortly after, in 2003, Sandhurst was training officers from the Syrian armed forces. Now, of course, Syria is an international pariah. Journalist Michael Cockerell has written about Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi's time at the Army School of Education in Beaconsfield in 1966: "Three years [later], Gaddafi followed a tradition of foreign officers trained by the British Army. He made use of his newfound knowledge to seize political power in his own country." Ahmed Ali Sandhurst-trained Ahmed Ali was a key player in the Egyptian military's removal of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi That tradition persists. In the 1990s Egyptian colonel Ahmed Ali attended Sandhurst. In 2013 he was one of the key figures in the Egyptian military's removal of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, now rewarded by a post in President Sisi's inner circle of advisers. In the late 1990s there were moves by the British government under Tony Blair to end Sandhurst's training of overseas cadets. Major-General Arthur Denaro, Middle East adviser to the defence secretary and commandant at Sandhurst in the late 1990s, describes the idea as part of the "ethical foreign policy" advocated by the late Robin Cook, then-foreign secretary. Tony Blair and Robin Cook Tony Blair and Robin Cook at one point planned to end Sandhurst's training of overseas cadets The funeral of King Hussein in 1999 appears to have scuppered the plan. "Coming to that funeral were the heads of state of almost every country in the world - and our prime minister was there, Tony Blair," says Major-General Denaro. "He happened to see me talking to heads of state - the Sultan of Brunei, the Sultan of Oman, the Bahrainis, the Saudis - and he said 'How do you know all these guys?' The answer was because they went to Sandhurst." Today, Sandhurst has reportedly trained more officer cadets from the UAE than from any other country bar the UK. The May 2014 intake included 72 overseas cadets, around 40% of whom were from the Middle East. "In the future," says Maryam al-Khawaja, acting president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, "people will look back at how much Britain messed up in the [Middle East] because they wanted to sell more Typhoon jets to Bahrain, rather than stand behind the values of human rights and democracy." "It's one thing saying we're inculcating benign values, but that's not happening," says Habiba Hamid. Sandhurst is "a relic of the colonial past. They're not [teaching] the civic values we ought to find in democratically elected leaders." line Who else went to Sandhurst? Princes William and Harry, Winston Churchill, Ian Fleming, Katie Hopkins, Antony Beevor, James Blunt, Josh Lewsey, Devon Harris (From left to right) Princes William and Harry Sir Winston Churchill Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond (but did not complete training) Katie Hopkins, reality TV star Antony Beevor, historian James Blunt, singer-songwriter Josh Lewsey, World Cup-winning England rugby player Devon Harris, member of Jamaica's first bobsleigh team line Sandhurst says that "building international relations through military exchanges and education is a key pillar of the UK's international engagement strategy". Sandhurst may be marvellous for the UK, a country where the army is subservient to government, but it is also delivering militarily-trained officers to Middle Eastern monarchies where, often, armies seem to exist to defend not the nation but the ruling family.

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