Earlier this year, Black-ish tackled police brutality and the killings of unarmed black men in one of its most popular episodes since its premiere. The show focused on #BlackLivesMatter, with the family reacting to the possible indictment of a police officer for killing an unarmed black man.
But Black-ish wasn't the first black television series to tackle these issues. Way before the hashtag rose to fame, one episode of Family Matters dealt with racial profiling.
In the show's 1994 episode called "Good Cop, Bad Cop," Sgt. Carl Winslow’s (Reginald VelJohnson) son Eddie (Darius McCrary) was pulled over in a "white neighborhood" and was roughed up by police for a minor violation. Eddie explained the situation to his father, and Winslow took matters into his own hands.
Take a look at the videos below:
Black sitcoms, whether cartoons like the Boondocks or series like Black-ish and Family Matters, have shed light on the issues black people face in everyday life. I guess you can say it's art imitating life, but hopefully people will realize that even back in 1994, you had instances of television being "woke."