Mentally Preparing For The Heaviness One Feels While Watching ‘When They See Us’

Ava DuVernay’s highly anticipated series When They See Us has finally been released. In fact, the drama series has been out for a couple of weeks now, but I had to mentally prepare myself for this watch. During a night of wine and laughter, my partner wished to begin the series the moment it landed on Netflix. I said no, as it would damper the energy of that night drastically. When They See Us isn’t a series that you binge watch, or the type of series that you cannot wait to come home to after a draining day of work. Even with only four episodes, I still find myself having to take this in small doses, due to the heaviness that is carried while watching extreme injustice unfold before my eyes.

I dislike feeling angry, resentful, and disgusted by events in the world that I cannot change, both past and present. This is why I avoid watching the news, which is oftentimes depressing and toxic for our mental health. I’m not one to hold onto outrage when I cannot channel it in productive or appropriate ways, because I then find myself filled with bitterness that does me absolutely no good. I was very much aware of the Central Park Five’s story and how hopelessly enraged it made me feel. And yet I still made the decision to watch, partly because it comes with the job as an editorial writer, and secondly because, well, DuVernay is a genius in her own right – and When They See Us may quite possibly be one of the most important series of the times.

After finally viewing the first episode of the miniseries, I felt silly for assuming that any sort of mental preparation could have equipped me for the outrage that I would still inevitably experience. Watching these young, lively, and gifted Black boys being targeted as criminals based solely on the color of their skin is clearly not a new concept to us. But when the Central Park Five’s story is dramatized in such an authentic way, and we become acquainted with these boys and the loving families that they come from, it is all the more painful. It’s incredibly difficult to watch when the underhanded cops and detectives begin to use their deceitful and twisted tactics in order to manipulate these boys to turn on each other, and eventually admit to a crime they undoubtedly did not commit.  The way in which the actors seem to become the Central Park Five, feeling through an unimaginable type of pain in the best way that they know how, is remarkable. While it is certainly an exhausting watch, I will pull through – keeping in mind that they have now been exonerated, although they may never be fully healed from the years stolen.

Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise are now known as “The Exonerated Five.” Recently, they discussed the new series in an upcoming special with Oprah Winfrey. “It’s bittersweet,” said Kevin Richardson. “Watching this is painful, but it’s necessary. It needs to be watched.” The full panel interview, titled Oprah Winfrey Presents When They See Us Now, will premiere this Wednesday, June 12th at 10:00 p.m. EST on both Netflix and OWN.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3F9n_smGWY