Yeah, but why? Why would you do that?
Why would you let him do that?
Okay, just--
You would not believe what's goin' on
with my crazy-ass family right now.
Just... loose in the wild.
Hiya!
[Miles] So as you can see, I am in jail.
Ashley decided she couldn't handle
telling Sean where I was right away,
so she told him I was doing a moving job.
To Montana.
[Miles] I'm gonna be here for years,
and she can't hold off his questions anymore.
How do you tell a six-year-old his dad won't be home?
Okay, kid. What's it gonna be today?
Princess and the Frog? The Wiz?
Akeelah and the Bee? Cool Runnings?
I wanna watch Paddington 2.
Whodington what?
Uh--
It's about a British bear?
Yeah.
Don't you wanna watch a Black movie?
What's a Black movie?
A movie with people Black like you.
What color you think you are, Sean?
Honey brown.
Fuck.
[dramatic music plays]
♪ ♪
Not everything is black and white,
all good or all bad.
Some things are both--
the way you can be both happy and sad.
Some things we're told are bad are good,
and some things we're sold as good are bad.
And some things change
depending on where you choose to stand.
Life is about how you choose to see the truth at hand.
And the truth isn't planned, isn't clean.
It's a crapshoot of Mom and Dad's moves
falling off a moving van.
It's...
it's not a movie, Sean.
It's a piece of music in and out of tune.
It's an unruly dance. It's a--
Bitch, what the fuck are you talking about?
No, mm-mm, don't say that.
You need to just tell him his dad's in jail.
Don't make a goddamn dance analogy.
I'm just trying to figure out the right way to tell him.
He's gonna be so scared,
and I don't want him to think his dad is a bad person.
Oh, honey, come on. I know. It's a lot.
Look, it's slow today.
We're at, like, 30% capacity,
and I'm sure I can handle any requests that come down,
and you seem...
in shambles, let's just say that.
You know, why don't you take off early
and take some time to reword that speech a bit better?
Spend some time with your thoughts.
And how will you spend the day with your thought?
I wanna smoke.
Ooh, I thought we were cutting back on that, baby.
No, I mean smoke.
Ooh, this is a nice-ass coat.
I wanna go for a walk.
In nature, please.
And it's a date.
-I just do what I'm told. -[Ashley] Mm-hmm.
[soft music plays]
♪ ♪
[Janelle] Oh, shoot. Forgot my flash drive.
We need to teach Sean he's Black.
What makes you think he don't know that he Black?
I asked him, straight up.
Okay, but how did you ask him?
He don't even know what a Black movie is.
[Janelle sighs] Here I was thinkin'
I was gonna get some work done today.
Earl, can you please remind me
to export my last podcast session?
Mm, but what're y'all talkin' about, though?
Sean?
What are your favorite movies to watch?
John Wick, John Wick 2,
Paddington, Paddington 2,
and Are You Afraid of the Dark?
-Mm? -[Nancy] Thank you.
See?
Not nar' a Black Pantherin sight.
I think he just needs to watch true original Black film.
Ooh, The Wiz.
-White writer. -[both] What?
Uh-uh, Quincy Jones wrote that.
No, the-the music. He wrote the music.
The Wizand Bobby Caldwell? Damn.
Quincy Jones was not properly credited
by the white establishment
for his contribution to that film.
-[Janelle] Say that, Mama. -[Earl] Wait.
Y'all wanna know the indisputable
Black film, though?
-What? -What?
Meteor Man.
-Nigga, what? -[laughter]
Judge, if I may.
Perhaps the Blackest film of all time.
Robert Townsend superhero hood sci-fi
that paved the way for Black Panther?
Look, arguably, there's no Blade.
There's no Kazaam. There's no Bobby and Whitney.
There's no Obama. I'm serious!
It had James Earl Jones, Cypress Hill.
Come on, now.
Motherfuckin' Meteor Man. Ain't nobody better.
You can say what you want, Earl,
but my shit is The Five Heartbeats.
Oh!
[Janelle] You already know I love me some Eddie King!
Why would y'all have him watch that?
He's too young to watch historical fiction.
-Well... -Fiction?
You tryin' to say they wasn't a real band?
Did OJ's hand really not fit in that glove?
I suggested Cool Runnings.
Now, that's Jamaica--sorta.
[groans] White writer. White director.
[both] Shut up!
["Somethin' to Ride To" playing]
[Ashley] Shit.
Tryin' to do it the hard way, huh?
You wanna-you wanna make it as hard as humanly--
you wanna roll while you drive.
Leave me alone!
Lick it, you know?
You just lick it. And then you pack it.
And then you use your palm as the other hand to roll it.
You know what I'm sayin'? So, um...
-Yeah. -...just like, you know, this.
[The Conscious Daughters] ♪ Damn, this shit's ♪
♪ Hittin' hard In the trunk... ♪
Well, that has a lot of holes in it, baby.
[laughs] You can't smoke this.
What, am I supposed to play these little holes on here
like a little recorder? [laughs]
Just-just play a song while you smoke.
Just hum a little Diddy.
[Richie Rich] ♪ Something About the West Coast ♪
Ooh. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh.
[both] Shh! Don't tell nobody.
♪ Something About the West Coast ♪
♪ It makes me wanna ride ♪
♪ Shake it, Westside Throw yo' hands up ♪
♪ Let's ride To the city of the scene ♪
♪ We gonna put it on the one ♪
♪ Get your body On the dance floor ♪
[Miles] ♪ Makes me wanna ride ♪
-♪ Shake it, Westside ♪ -♪ Westside ♪
-♪ Let's ride ♪ -♪ Throw yo' hands up ♪
- ♪ Let's ride ♪ -♪ We gonna put it on the one ♪
♪ Get your body On the dance floor ♪
♪ In and out my zone I roam Like mobile phones ♪
♪ Ragtop 'Vettes, Yukons And hundred chromes ♪
♪ Silly bitches lie in wait Until the day I come home ♪
♪ While the phone machine Kicks ♪
♪ Bitch, Rich ain't at home ♪
[Nancy] Lord, yeah, I didn't tell you that one.
Y'all should have heard how he said
"honey brown" like he the only one.
Yeah, okay, Mama,
but how did you phrase the question?
[Nancy] What am I, on trial?
I know how to question a child about the truth.
Sean, come over here, baby.
See, you got three in one hand and four in the other.
They fit together snug.
You gotta make it look effortless,
like you just pick things up like this all the time.
That's Black boy magic.
I don't think his Blackness
is attached to how he holds his dominoes.
-Am I supposed to go now? -[Nancy] Yeah.
I'm tryin' to give him
cultural touchstones to hold on to.
Okay. Here, Sean, let me introduce you
to a Black cornerstone, all right?
I'm the son of a chef,
but these Hot Cheetos hit different.
It's in your blood.
[Sean] Hmm.
Yuck, it's spicy!
Mm, this is more serious than I thought.
-[yells] -Okay, baby.
Go get some water. Just spit it out!
He's got lungs, hasn't he?
[Janelle] Look, y'all, he's mixed Black.
We can't expect him to have
the same relationship to Blackness that we do.
That's your youth talkin'. We all mixed.
Shit, I just don't want him to grow up
to be one of those light-skinned kids
who think they better than somebody.
You didn't call your 15, by the way,
-but that was your bad. -[Nancy] Oh, write it down.
[Earl] Oh, no, it's too late. Go ahead.
Well, Ma, he's just having less of a Black experience.
Whoa, what? What are you saying?
The scale of Blackness is proportional
-to how much you're shit on? -No--
There are all different kinds of Black, equally.
I'm just sayin' that Sean out in the world
has a different experience than I do.
What is the Black experience, then?
Incense and brass crabs and plastic table covers?
Excuse me?
-No offense, Nancy. -[Janelle] Mm-mm.
[Nancy] Look at him.
Crippled by the slightest hint of spice.
-[Janelle] Mm. -Get your asses on the ground!
-[Janelle] Bitch. -See? See? That's that shit.
Damn, y'all just left the door unlocked like some white folks.
[Nancy] Who left the door open?
Sean, baby, you wanna go back to the house and watch a movie?
- Paddington 2? -[Earl] What? No!
Hold on. We--
[Sean] Can we get popcorn, Tía?
-[Earl] Paddington? -[Sean] Oh, yeah.
[Miles] You remember when you were goin' into labor
-and you said, "Never mind." -[chuckles]
"I don't want a kid. I take it back."
And I was like, "Baby, that's not really gonna work out,
"because you are crowning right now.
I can see this motherfucker's head."
[laughter]
Yeah, I mean...
we got our son, and it was better after.
Right, I'm not saying it's gonna be easy,
but it is happening, and it is gonna get better.
I can hear your mom railing on the phone
about the evils of hospitals and...
tryin' to tell me to squat in the bathtub.
Like, the fuck, Rainey?
She's a hippie mom.
Well, I also remember
you were supposed to play me a song to keep me calm.
-What was it? -Oh.
-What was it? -I don't know.
Come on, that was your only job.
I don't know. I don't know!
Clearly, it didn't work!
I just remember pulling up to Highland
and getting in a wheelchair.
And that one dude who got shot,
he was getting pulled out of an ambulance,
and he was screamin', and I was screamin',
and I was like, "I don't know who's in more pain,"
but I think it was me.
Well, you were certainly making the bigger deal out of it.
My dad showed up.
-Oh, man! -Wow.
Yeah.
Well, put a stop to that. [chuckles]
He wasn't gonna fuck up that day.
[sighs] You were so tough that day.
Just... hard. [laughs]
You might be the hardest person I know.
-I was giving birth. -I don't wanna do it.
-[laughter] -I'd have turned back.
-You were a dad. -Yeah.
-Cryin'. -Cryin'. Bawlin'.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, I-I suddenly was this thing,
I'd never had.
Yeah.
-I remember you sayin' that. -Hmm.
My mom was there.
Yeah.
She said he looked like her father.
She only had a year with Sean.
That was tough.
That was real tough.
Yeah.
The end of the pre-Sean era.
[with English accent] The pre-Sean era.
[with English accent] A time before Sean.
A time before the child.
[laughter]
[normally] Fuckin', now he can walk and talk and...
ask questions and know things.
I just wish we could go back.
I wanted to go out for New Year's.
I wanted to get dressed up.
I wanted to see you all dressed up.
[Miles] Today's the day, Ash.
What are we gonna tell our son?
-[refrigerator door slams] -[Sean exhales heavily]
What I'm sayin' is, is that Black is an experience.
And baby boy might experience it less.
Well, not less. Like, he--differently.
Right. That's what I'm sayin'.
So, some Black people have more privilege than others.
Black privilege?
How the fuck does that activate?
No, I hear what Janelle is sayin'.
Proximity to Eurocentricity privilege.
-[Janelle] Thank you. -[Trish] Sean.
What exactly did Mama Nancy say to you?
[Nancy] Don't ask a clearly confused child.
He needs answers, not more questions.
Yeah, but, Ma, did you ask him in a weird way?
[Nancy] What'd I say?
See, y'all are trippin'.
Sean is from here. He's Black, okay?
Ain't no semi-Blackness.
There's all kinda shades of Black.
He from the West. His daddy in jail.
He with the shits, as far as I know.
I don't know if "with the shits"
-has anything to do with it. -[Janelle] Right.
Because them is circumstances.
You know, Blackness is not just a bunch of circumstances.
Yes, and some circumstances are uniquely Black.
-[Earl] Facts. -Exactly, exactly.
See, the nigga who was raised rich in Piedmont
and went to private school
is not the same Black the way we are Black.
The nigga can't play spades
and the nigga can't play bones, so...
Well, hold up, 'cause I can't play spades or dominoes.
-Yeah, I tried. -What? Really?
No, I can't play spades, Earl.
But what she talkin' about is the hood pass,
and that's something completely different.
Wait, okay, so y'all sayin' the hood pass
has nothing to do with it, hmm?
Like, y'all ain't never read nobody
on they Blackness for how hood they are?
- Hmm. That's interesting. -Cap! Okay.
Mm.
Yeah, I mean, I did just read you
'cause you can't play spades, Janelle.
Oh, my God, y'all, it's about how the world
sees dark skin, period.
[Trish] Okay, I feel what you sayin',
-but what I am saying... -[Earl] Okay.
...is that Black is Black, right?
-[Earl] Okay, I can dig that. -Okay.
Then, depending on where you raised and your environment
makes you more or less Black.
-[Janelle] No, Trish. -That don't make no sense.
I'm hella Black. I'm officially super--
like, I'm actually certified.
I'm actually-- at the DMV, I'm Black.
[Trish] Uh-huh.
[Earl] You know what I mean?
And I'm from the East but, like,
the nice part of the East.
You know what I'm sayin'? My parents is cool.
They love each other. They good.
Like, they got, like, retirement money.
My pops drive a Mercedes. I'm less Black?
Yeah, nigga, and you were in Quentin for drugs.
-So now I'm Black? -[Nancy] Mm.
You're saying I'm post-jail Black, Trish?
No, what I'm saying is that--
No, what you're saying makes no sense at the end of the day.
'Cause here, look.
Your little beige self
cannot tell me or qualify my Blackness at all.
So what's up with that?
Well, Nancy the same shade as me.
Her grandmother is white.
Does that make her any less Black?
[Janelle] Uh-uh. Hold up.
[Trish] Does that make her less Black?
[Earl] You're talkin' about people granny like that?
Hold up! My momma is old beige Black.
So that's-that's hella different.
Okay, full stop. First of all, not old.
No, it makes sense. Like, 40 years ago,
would've been a little bit better,
but Nancy's still Rosa Parks Black.
-[Janelle] Mm. -You 2018 light-skinned.
You know what I'm sayin'? You like Doja Cat Black.
-[Trish] Oh! -[Janelle] Aw, shit.
-How old do y'all think I am? -You really wanna know?
[Trish] Hang on. Hey, hold up.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, y'all.
You think I look like Doja Cat?
Wow. Wow.
This is my whole point, okay?
Growin' up, everybody used to say
how beautiful Ashley was, right?
Everybody always said her hair was so pretty.
They always wanted to know what was she mixed with.
Everybody was flauntin' they mix.
"Ooh, well, girl, you know, I'm mixed with India."
"Well, girl, shit, I'm part Filipino."
Meanwhile, I'm over there rockin' Afro puffs,
standin' next to bitches who look like you,
and they over there tellin' me
that I need to get my fuckin' hair pressed.
[Nancy] Okay, so let's back it up for a second,
my worldly academic youngsters,
'cause I been Black
for a long time.
Well, not that long. [chuckles]
But longer than y'all.
And I came here before you all were born,
when Oakland was a place you went to
to get away from how Black people--
all kinds of Black people--
were being treated in the South.
And it was a Black city.
Ooh, the Panthers built it up.
Then the FBI made it a crack city.
Then redlining kept us from buyin' anything,
and now we gettin' pushed out by new white money
and generational old white money
as if we never existed.
So this whole conversation is some Black privilege.
And I love it.
So keep on havin' it.
And you're welcome.
And now I'm late for my date with a Chinese man,
so progress.
And good night.
And y'all show Sean The Wiz
and The Five Heartbeats, motherfuckers.
-Bye. -[Janelle] Y'all.
Wait, y'all, y'all, y'all, for real.
I got one more question.
I got one more question, y'all.
[Earl] What's up?
[Janelle] What?
Do I look like Doja Cat?
-[Janelle] Okay, bitch, listen. -[meows]
-I can't tell him the truth. -Nope.
He's gonna hate you for not bein' there.
You're probably already so mad at me for what happened.
It's all I think about.
You must be...
you must be fuckin' furious with me, right?
Somewhere, hate me sometimes?
Maybe.
But I do always say...
[both] I'm a grown man.
I make my own decisions in the end.
-There it is. -Yeah, well...
I hope that philosophy of yours is still holding strong.
And maybe you're scared to tell Sean, too,
and that's why you haven't been as pushy as I expect you
to be about seein' him.
-[Miles] Maybe, yeah. -Yeah.
Yeah, maybe we don't even have to tell him.
[laughs] No.
I mean, dads leave all the time.
-All the time. -[Miles] And kids are fine.
You know, my dad left. No big deal, I'm fine.
Yeah, we'll tell him when I get out.
We'll do that. That's a good plan.
[groans]
That's not what you're gonna say.
[Miles sighs]
I'm just worried you're thinking--
Bring me my son, you disloyal bitch!
Yes! That's the one. Keep going.
All right.
If it were me out here,
you wouldn't even have to question
how loyal I would be.
But here you are, skippin' visitation,
not bringin' me my son,
and you won't even tell him where the fuck I am!
You don't get to doubt my loyalty!
You know exactly how I am built.
Come on, Ash! We had a son! We had an understanding!
We said we were gonna do this in a partnership!
That's what we said!
And that we would weather whatever the fuck happened
as long as we were here!
I know! And I'm still here! It's a fucking hurricane.
Just give me an inch of fucking slack while I figure it out!
Loving a ghost is exhausting!
I'm not dead, Ash.
[Ashley] Yeah, but you're not here.
You're in a cinder block room at Oakland County,
and I'm on a mountaintop yelling at myself
all because you did me a favor.
There it is. There it is.
Guilt.
'Cause I kept my mouth shut.
You don't owe me anything, baby.
You don't.
[sentimental music plays]
Of course you would say that.
Wow.
I forget how beautiful Oakland is.
[Miles] You say that every time we come here.
You know my favorite part?
You know I do.
When that strip of fog rolls in
and covers everything by the morning.
[sighs] Happens every night.
It's the most reliable thing about this place.
It's loyal.
-I love the gray. -Hmm.
People like the sunny view,
but I think the gray is more...
interesting.
-Hmm. -More complicated.
And there it is.
He's got to learn to love the gray.
About... life.
He's gotta learn that about... people.
He's gotta learn that about us.
I... wouldn't do that.
Maybe don't be high
talkin' to our son about... his dad.
Does it have to be today?
I'm not even really here,
so that is entirely up to you, but seeing as I am here,
I think that tells us two things.
One, you know you should've told him
a week or two ago.
So there's that.
And the other?
You're thirsty for me.
You can't stop thinkin' about me.
-Thirsty? -You want it bad.
-Oh. -I get it. I am a whole meal.
I'm there, you think about something else.
[pops lips] I'm back.
[laughs]
'Cause you want it, and you need it.
[laughs]
-[sighs] -[Ashley] I just miss you.
That's all.
You're my person.
♪ ♪
[Miles] Ash?
[Ashley] Yeah?
[Miles] Why am I dressed like Gatsby?
[Ashley] I don't know.
I just wanted to see it.
[Miles] Okay.
[Ashley] Okay.
[hip-hop music playing over radio]
♪ ♪
[man over radio] Guys, when it's time to start planning
the details of your wedding, you and your fiancé'll
probably have to make some compromises with each other.
But when it comes to her engagement ring,
well, it's all about her.
-I'm t-- -[radio clicks off]
[sighs]
[Ashley] What's up, y'all?
Hey, sis, come on and sit down.
We finna show Sean The Wiz.
Sean's seen The Wiz.
Oh, he said he ain't seen The Wiz.
Sean, you remember The Wizard of Oz
with Michael Jackson?
-Ease on down. -[Ashley] See?
He doesn't know that there's a white Wizard of Oz.
-Shit, you know what? -[Earl] Checks out.
I think it's the way that my mama asked,
that's what made it weird.
-Right, the way that-- -That's what happened.
Yeah, she said "colored."
No, what I think it is
is that y'all tryin' to play me.
No! You know my mama. That was my mama.
All right, well, it's time to take you home.
We have to have a talk about his dad.
-[Earl] Oh, shit. All right. -[Ashley] Yeah.
Well, you know, let us know
if you need anything, 'cause we right here.
Thanks.
-You ready? -Yep.
Bye, baby.
-[Earl] Peace out, man. -[Trish] Told y'all--
[Janelle] Girl, you shut up. You shut--
[ethereal music plays]
♪ ♪
Hey.
Time for bed. Go brush your teeth.
♪ ♪
Straight to bed, okay? I'm gonna come tuck you in.
♪ ♪
Hey.
Time to get into bed.
You okay?
Yeah.
I wanna talk to you about your dad.
Sean, your dad isn't going to be home for a while.
Why?
Your dad...
your dad is--
He got sent away... to jail.
Do you remember about jail?
From when your uncle went?
Well, your dad had to go too.
He didn't want to, and he loves you,
and you'll be able to visit him every week.
But your dad is going to be there for a while.
Why is he in jail? What did he do?
It's complicated, baby.
He just tried to do the right thing
at a really bad time.
But he's not a bad person.
How long will he be in there?
Five years.
That's a long time, Mom!
He'll miss my birthday!
I know. I know. I know.
But we'll get to visit him, and he'll call.
And we'll keep him in our hearts, okay?
Until he gets home?
I miss him.
I know you do.
So do I.
But I love you.
Do you wanna read?
Okay.
♪ ♪
The Night Dad Went to Jail.
"This is one of my before drawings.
Before means before my dad went to jail."
"Dad and I didn't catch anything,
"but we had fun anyway.
"My dad calls me Sketch because I like to draw.
"Miss Sanchez, my school counselor,
"says drawing is a good way for me to show my feelings.
"I must have a lot of feelings.
"Dad and I didn't catch anything,
but we had fun anyway."
[somber music plays]
♪ ♪
[Earl] Hey, have you ever really watched--
[Janelle] Shit! What the hell?
Have you ever really watched Paddington 2?
[Janelle] What?
It's about a bear in a white neighborhood
that gets the cops called on him,
and then he goes to jail, and then-and then he's a chef!
This--
I'm Paddington! This is hella Black.
Sean is, like, a little honey brown genius.
[chuckles]
I'm goin' to bed.
Um, you seen my journal?
Um, you put it back here.
Oh, thanks.
Oh, oh, oh, um,
don't forget to-to export the thang thang?
Remember you told me to tell you.
Oh, yeah.
I definitely forgot. Thank you.
Yeah, yeah, no, for sure.
[sentimental jazz music playing]
♪ ♪
Oh, my Go-- I also hate making marmalade!
That's--
Marmalade is so hard to make!
♪ ♪