”When They See Us” is a Netflix four-part miniseries, released on May 31, 2019. It recounts the true story of five teenagers who were wrongfully arrested and convicted in the April 1989 beating and rape of a female jogger, in New York’s Central Park. The five teenagers were 14-16 years old at the time and were coerced into confessing to the assault. The defendants were black or Hispanic; the victim was white. They were prosecuted for the ultimate crime in American imagery, a black man sexually assaulting a white woman.
Four of the defendants were 14 years old and served seven years in juvenile facilities before being transferred to adult jail at age 21. One of the defendants, who had a hearing loss and a learning disability, was 16 at the time of conviction and served more than 13 years in violent adult prisons.
Their convictions were overturned in 2002 due to DNA evidence and a confession from serial rapist Macias Reyes.
“When They See Us” became the most watched show in the U.S. since its premiere. It has been streamed to 23 million people and received 16 Emmy nominations.
The series portrays a racist legal system and a hellish penal system, as well as racist media hysteria that put the five in prison. Donald Trump did his part. In May 1989, as the case was headed to trial, then real estate developer, Trump spent $85,000 placing a full-page ad in four newspapers, including the New York Times, under the headline, “Bring Back the Death Penalty. Bring Back Our Police!”
The intended audience for “When They See Us” is young people—potential voters. This is not aimed at adults in their forties and elders who know past racist history such as frame-up of the Scottsboro Nine (Alabama, 1931) or the murder of Emmett Till (Mississippi, 1955).
Young potential voters today have negative experiences with the police such as those depicted in the miniseries. Trump’s attacks on immigrants and his position that the Central Park Five are guilty make him a potential target for recruiting young voters, which would help the Democrats in the 2020 presidential election.
What does Ava DuVernay, the producer and director say? “Our real goal is to be able to say, ‘Go America.’ Let’s do this. Let’s change this. You can’t change what you don’t know, so we came together to show you what you may not know.”
What you may not know
Communists must show workers “what you may not know.” On the job, at schools, in mass organizations, and to friends, we must explain how capitalism needs racism and that capitalist rulers use racism to keep their power. They control and use the media, the “nightly news,” movies, and elections, regardless of party. They build illusions in capitalist reforms, to deceive, manipulate, and divide workers.
The title, “When They See Us,” serves capitalism’s racist rulers’ interests by promoting distrust, division, and fear among workers: “They” can be interpreted as White people; “us” people of color.
Let’s change this. How?
We change this by building a base for and winning the masses to communism.
A communist system without money, cops or jails—based on collective work, decision making, and sharing resources according to need will end the material basis of racism. What if there is an attempt to bring back racism? The communist collective would deal with it and put it down.
What is to be done now?
We must build a base for communist class consciousness and awareness, read and distribute Red Flag, and recruit masses to the ICWP.
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