So Far: Outlaw

Time for a return review on one of Hulu's fall shows: Outlaw.

I've just watched the second episode, and I think it's an appropriate time. I enjoyed the pilot and all, but it didn't really deviate from my predictions, so I didn't have much to say about it (Other than the fact that the real murderer was a WASP male, which was just kickass). The second episode, on the other hand, left me with a lot to say.

A quick recap (spoilers!): In Arizona, a white police officer is charged with violating a man's civil rights after he gets into an altercation with a Latino man, resulting from the recent anti-immigration law. Cyrus Garza takes the side of the cop (surprise!) and gets him found not guilty.

Let me just say I have no quibble with the way the story played out. I felt that it was perfectly reasonable to find the cop innocent - especially, as Garza points out, since he was following the law. I don't believe one could safely claim racial profiling in this case because of Reyes' proximity to the Mexican border - the fact is, there aren't a lot of white immigrants coming in from Mexico. So I agree with Garza.

However, I have a complaint, and it's a biggie.

The other day, my sister came to me, having read some anti-racist blogs, and confessed that she now found the Avenue Q song "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist" horrifying. When I asked her why, she explained with a question: "Who does it help?"

Who, indeed? While the song makes a point - nearly everyone harbors some racial prejudice - it doesn't deflate some high-and-mighty darkie who thinks that he or she is better than the white man. It just excuses white people's behavior because everyone else does it too, ignoring the power factors that make it a much bigger problem when a pale (presumed white, usually is) person does it.

So when I saw this episode, I had to ask myself: Who does it help?

And therein lies the problem. It plays out like some kind of knee-jerk "white victim panic." Ohnoez, innocent white cops will be forced to follow this law and be prosecuted unfairly by those mean ol' pro-alien liberals! We're DOOMED! And while the story doesn't deny (explicitly or implicitly) that real victims of color do happen, giving the center stage to the rare, non-overtly-racist, actually-had-reasonable-suspicion cop is just white-serving. Not that there would be anything wrong with that if media didn't tend to serve white people already. But it does, so I was really hoping we'd see a case of actual profiling.

There's one thing that I'm not sure on, and that is the eventual "not guilty" verdict. On the one hand, oh boy, all the darkies came out of the woodwork to support poor Whitey! YAAAAY! On the other hand, maybe it will do something to reassure the paranoid that POC are perfectly capable of being reasonable and fair and not letting their bad experiences bias them. So it's a good/bad thing, in my opinion.

Then there was one thing that really got my goat: the fact that Al - the Black Best Friend, of all people - was the one upset about the issue. The one guy who probably knew exactly what he was talking about got shut down not only by Garza (who apparently has never lived in this kind of area) but by all the white people, and then it turned out that they were all right and he was overreacting. Uh, gee. Way to go, writers.

That pretty much sums it up. Good story, unfortunate choice of plot factors, kind of on-the-fence about its overall benefit level. If a PoC wants to take this on and cover something that I missed (goodness knows being a white kid there's probably something), I'd love to hear from xem.