We’ve been discussing discourse a lot lately in Pop Culture, and it has made me think back through lots of different examples discourse I’ve seen in the media over the past few months.

One example that has had a lasting influence on me is a clip from a US show called “Black-ish” and an episode called “Hope” in which an African-American family start to discuss the problem of police brutality with their children. I came across the episode after it gained media attention in the US, as it raised the issue of how families can talk about police brutality. The clip I saw is only two minute or so long, but the first time I saw it, I was almost in tears.

Naturally, being a white Australian, I can never fully understand what racism feels like and I’m certainly not about to argue that I do. The reason the clip effected me so much was that it gave me a better understanding of my own privilege.

In the episode, the mother, Bow, tells her children that they must always co-operate with police, as she hopes that this will help them to survive such an encounter as the depressingly high number of African-Americans that have been shot by police officers in the past few years. This made me think back to when I was a kid, and my mother always told me that the police were there to help me and that they were the people I should go to if I was ever in trouble. The fact that there are parents who feel they have to advise their children otherwise saddens me, as of course the police should be there to protect everyone, but that isn’t always the case.

To me, this is a brilliant piece of media. For a clip to be taken out of the context of the show and still have such a powerful influence on people, to make them think about the harsh realities of the world they live, is an incredible achievement. Sometimes people have a tendency to dismiss issues of representation for minority groups and the influence of narrative media. However examples such as these demonstrate that narrative can have the power to start important discussions, and this can only happen when minority groups are given the representation needed to start such discussions.