crossedwires:leavemealonetoread:crossedwires:alfredo: we need to be patient and methodical with him.
crossedwires:leavemealonetoread:crossedwires:alfredo: we need to be patient and methodical with him.joan: i was under the impression that you’d never been a sponsor before.alfredo: haven’t. but i had a great one. taught me everything he knows. truth is, i’ve been wanting to be a sponsor for a while now. people never ask. think it’s because i’m quiet. i can help your friend, ms watson. he just needs to give me the chance.i’m not sure if that last line is ‘he just needs to give me the chance’ or ‘you just need to give me the chance’. but i really that he gets to say, wryly, ‘think it’s because i’m quiet’ and the camera goes to joan’s caught-off-guard/surprised laugh reaction because she was judging him based on appearance and racial stereotypes. and her little nod of acknowledgement/chagrin of her own biases & anti-blackness and to him for calling her out on it. and i like that it’s subtle, or at least not a big dramatic scene, because this is how microaggressions work (though, in my own experience, not generally resolved like this b/c most privileged people don’t get it as fast as & without backpedaling all over the place like joan did here (like, i’m not even sure lucy liu would)). and i really really love that the show DOES NOT CONTRADICT HIM.i also like that the show is saying that alfredo is a better sponsor than the bland platitude-spouting white guy who was joan’s first candidate. like they’re saying, ‘sure, we could cast this random white dude, but, this other guy, a poc that most people dismiss, is ACTUALLY BETTER FOR THE JOB.’I don’t see a lot of shows depicting racist microaggressions often, but maybe that’s because casts are whiter than white. (At least, the racism is usually in the narrative and not shown, on purpose, to be racist. Like relying on racist tropes or the audience’s internalized racism to make a point. Idk.)But I loved that Alfredo called it out here, because I saw racism in Sherlock choosing him knowing Joan wouldn’t like him, and Joan being skeptical and awkward during their meeting, and I thought it would go unacknowledged and (white) viewers would do that thing where they’re like “it’s not racist it’s because _________,” and just. no. It’s racism. Alfredo pointedly saying, “think it’s because I’m quiet” and Joan reacting (because she’s guilty of that) was important.yeah. i feel like it shouldn’t be such a big thing (to me, anyway) that the narrative does not deny joan/sherlock/the viewer’s racism & anti-blackness, and that joan herself doesn’t deny it, when alfredo mentions her racist assumptions of him. that the show is on alfredo’s side here. and without it being a learning moment or white savior moment.(this is the exact opposite of ‘the good wife’ and its racist values. i can’t even tell you how happy i am right now.)(And, also, have you seen Homicide: Life on the Street?) -- source link
#elementary ca#gif