'The Chi' Season 3 Episode 3: Inequality and discrimination are seamlessly highlighted in 'Buss Down'
Spoilers for 'The Chi' Season 3 Episode 3 'Buss Down'
While Kiesha's disappearance is one of the main storylines of Season 3 so far, 'Buss Down' also focusses on the racism and inequality the south side community faces. The characters are fully aware of the discrimination they face despite their talent, achievements and problems and the episode highlights this in two interesting scenarios.
The first one is when Kevin Williams (Alex Hibbert) and Jake Taylor (Michael V Epps) discuss about Trig (Luke James) helping them to find Kiesha in a class where the French Revolution documentary is being screened and discussed. Another classmate, Jemma (Judae’a Brown), one of the latest Black characters in the show gets an introduction as Kevin's potential love interest.
From her introduction, it is clear Jemma is brilliant, absolutely mature and level-headed. When the teacher hauls up Kevin for talking in class and asks him to summarize the documentary, the teen dishes out a rather crude outline and Jemma jumps in to explain the documentary in detail. After the class, she confronts the duo giving her a piece of her mind. "Look guys, there aren't too many of us here. So your actions are a reflection of mine whether I like it or not," she says.
"So please, get y'all s**t together! Whether you like it or not, these white folks are still running s**t, and the only way for us to fix it is outrun these motherf*****s. We can't just be excellent, we got to be phenomenal. And you're a king. Stop acting like a peasant," she tells Kevin.
The second instance is at the Rock support group that Tracy runs where Nina Williams (Tyla Abercrumbie) and Dre (Miriam A Hyman) where one of the volunteers talk about how not many people, especially the White folks care about missing or murdered Black people. And should one of their own goes missing, "It'll be on the CNN" she says. And in a way, this is sadly and unfortunately true. To just add to the sheer timing, it goes in hand with the current ongoings in the country.
'The Chi' has been one of those shows that don't hesitate to voice out opinions loud and clear. In 'Buss Down', it just looks at how a missing disappearance or any issues that arise within the community gets the people in that part of town to unite and work together due to the lack of cooperation and support. This storyline of highlighting inequality is woven seamlessly and couldn't have come at a better time.
'The Chi' Season 3 airs Sundays 9 pm ET on Showtime.