On the day I write this, it is the 57th anniversary
of the famous speech given by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., ‘I Have A Dream’. It is
also 187 years since Britain passed an act to abolish slavery in parts of the
Empire.
We would like to think that by now, racism should have been
effaced from the face of society. The reality is, it hasn’t. Martin Luther King’s
dream is still a dream.
I can’t tell you how much this frustrates me and fills me
with despair. This week alone, we have heard about the case of Jacob Blake,
shot seven times in the back by U.S. police officers, and now left paralysed. Today
it was revealed that despite his paralysis, Jacob Blake was handcuffed to his
hospital bed. Blake was unarmed and helping to diffuse a domestic
incident when he was attacked by police officers; the same cannot be said for a
17-year-old white supremacist who killed two people at a protest – and walked
free, within plain sight of police officers, immediately after his crime.
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Although the dystopian world of Noughts + Crosses
flips our reality upside down, so that black people (Crosses) are the ruling
race and white people (Noughts) are the subjugated group, this fourth episode provides
cogent social commentary on the state of the world in which we live. Noughts
+ Crosses forces us to flip the mirror back on ourselves and examine our
own reality. And, sadly, we are deeply and truly found wanting.
At the opening of episode 4, we are drawn into a scene of
mourning, as the Hadley family and others lay flowers in memory of those killed
in the attack on Demwa Hospital. Unsurprisingly, Home Secretary Kamal’s
knee-jerk response is to order even stricter force to be used by the police
(you can trust he means against Noughts, not Crosses). Having learnt that the
Hadley family was the target of the crime, there is no hope of appeasing him.
Cracks begin to appear in Sephy and Callum’s relationship. Trust is eroded, beginning with Sephy doubting Callum’s integrity.
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| Sephy is shocked that Callum knew that the bomb was going to explode before it went off. |
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Meggie plays the role of the strong matriarch very well. Played
by Helen Baxendale, she is portrayed in much the same way as the 'strong black
woman' that we so often hear of. Though she is going through trials of her own,
having lost her job, she is expected to hold the household together so it doesn’t
crumble. She must be strong for everyone else. Although it is intended
positively, this notion of the 'strong black woman' is actually very harmful. The
pressure to be everything to everyone else is detrimental to one’s mental
health.
Despite this, Meggie continues to do the best she can by her
children. The conversation she has with Callum where she warns him of the
danger he is getting himself into by having a relationship with Sephy, is
significant. It represents the action of a mother trying to protect her son
from harm, in a world where Noughts are deemed, as Ryan later says, “less than
nothing”.
An example of treating Noughts as though they are naught comes in the next scene: the news report Sephy watches features the newsreader uttering the words: “The victims of the Demwa Hospital bomb have now been named …”
The news report in fact only names
two of the victims – the only two who are Crosses. Not only is the Nought
victim not named, their photo is not shown. The word 'victim' is not assigned
to the Nought; we only know they existed and died because of this sentence: “The
third casualty of the bomb was a Nought cleaner at the hospital.” The line is a
throwaway: their life is deemed as of little value, not only because they were
a Nought, but also because they were doing a working-class job. Noughts +
Crosses is excellent in sharpening our focus on social injustice.
One character who will never care about social injustice is Kamal Hadley. He is a vitriolic racist with very disturbing ideas. In being romantically involved with Callum, Sephy is going against everything her father believes in and stands for.
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| Prime Minister Opal Folami loves to remind who's boss, and I love it! It is powerful seeing a female Prime Minister. |
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| Ahaha - you need to watch to see Kamal's face after this bombshell! IN YO FACE MISTA! |
The Prime Minister Opal Folami, conversely, is a refreshing character. Noughts + Crosses choosing a female to be Prime Minister is not a coincidence. While this dystopian world is primarily focused on the dynamics between Noughts and Crosses and deep-seated racism, it does not shy away from social commentary on gender inequality. To succeed in a man’s world is quite a feat, and despite her rise to the top, Opal is frequently met with resistance from her male colleagues.
Police Brutality
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The difficult but unavoidable topic of police brutality comes to the fore like never before in this episode. Having been tipped by the Hadleys, dozens of police officers storm into the McGregor home to arrest the bomb suspect. Dozens. I only wish this were unrealistic, but the scenes we see in the States these days mirror exactly that; just, the officers are of a different hue.
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| This scene is chilling. |
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| Unperturbed by the trouble he has caused for the McGregor family, Liberation Militia leader Jack Dorn – aka eternal opportunist, sips on a cup of tea. Not for long, though. |
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| Callum is pummelled by a police officer whilst in custody, for a crime there is no evidence of him committing. |
Some might say that police brutality is only a problem in the States. That isn’t true. Black people are victims of disproportionate force by the police in the UK, too. France has the same problem. Studies reveal that black people in England and Wales are five times more likely to have force used against them than white people. Although black people only account for about 3% of the UK population, 8% of police custody deaths take black lives. Callum McGregor doesn’t die in police custody, but in the real United Kingdom, Christopher Alder did – and so many others. We don’t know their names. We should.
Bloody and feeble – at the very weakest we’ve ever seen him –
Callum is told by a menacing constable that it is because of Sephy that he is
in this cell. We feel the betrayal hit him, take his breath.
Jude schools Sephy when she arrives at their house.
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Sephy’s ignorance puts Callum’s family in harm’s way. Her
explanation for giving Callum’s name to her father is: “I didn’t think this
would happen, I swear, Callum. I just thought that they were going to talk to
you.” 🤦🏾🤦🏾
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| Nah mate, she still doesn’t. 🤦🏾♀ |
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| Well said. |
Protecting Each Other
There is definitely a theme in this episode of protecting one’s loved ones from harm. Ryan takes the rap for Jude, despite his innocence.
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When he is threatened by another inmate, Ryan is protected by a prison officer.
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| The prison officer sees off Ryan’s aggressor. |
Although she ultimately chooses to protect her son over her husband, Meggie does, for once, let her emotions go.
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| Meggie flies at Jude in rage |
The moment where she collapses
into a bench, her body wracked with sobs, is a poignant one. It is the moment
where Meggie’s Superwoman cape finally comes off, and she is allowed to be
human.
As much as Lekan is an odious
character, in this episode he does show some signs of having tried to protect
Sephy – from the ramifications if it were discovered that she is in an illegal
relationship. His grace doesn’t last long, though.
In keeping with the theme of looking out for one another, Jasmine extends an olive branch to Meggie – and offers to help the McGregors.
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| The wordless acceptance of an embrace from Jasmine signals that Meggie is willing to forgive her. |
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| Her name is Ananya – it’s not that hard to pronounce! |
I love how Noughts + Crosses does not limit itself to depicting overt racism, but also addresses the subtle behaviours people exhibit to constantly make a group different to them feel “other”. Jasmine’s failure to correctly grasp how to pronounce Ryan’s advocate’s name is an example. Interestingly, Ananya is neither a Nought nor a Cross – she appears to be of what we would call, Asian descent – but what is she in the world of Noughts + Crosses? We are never told.
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| Jasmine pays for one of the best defence lawyers in Albion to represent Ryan. |
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| Noughts + Crosses outdoes itself in the costume design. Here Segun Okoro wears a traditional Yoruba agbada as his court suit, and a fila atop his head. |
Ryan’s lawyer is a welcome break from the bigoted Crosses we
have seen so much of already. He prepares the reporters for the hearing about
to take place by characterising "an entire people, traduced and victimised
on a daily basis".
The stage is set. And the McGregors rise to the challenge.
The Noughts speak, and the Crosses listen.
There are audible gasps when Callum reveals that he has been stopped by the police “maybe, three hundred times” – despite having no criminal record. Never charged, but “stopped and searched, asked where I was going, who I was going to see… And sometimes they make me sit in a police car whilst they radio into the station, to see if I’m wanted for anything.”
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| Imagine having a judge in gele in real life: how cool would that be?! |
When Ryan takes to the stand, his words too, are powerful.
“[I felt anger] when my cousin was beaten up so badly by the police, he was paralysed from the waist down. Or when the girl I went to school with was raped by her Cross manager and then took her own life when she was told that no charges would be brought”,
he tells us.
“Every Nought in there, they won’t have one of those
stories, they’ll have twenty”, he adds.
He reminds Crosses that they are part of these stories, too – they are the ones who perpetuate the cycle. This scene hits close to home for any black person, and any person of colour, for whom racism is not TV fiction, but daily reality.
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| Jack Dorn’s not the only opportunist in this episode… |
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| Callum, Meggie and Jude sit nervously as they wait for the judge’s verdict. |
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| Who wears a sleeveless dress to a final court hearing? It’s not a wedding, Sephy! |
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| After the verdict |
I’m not going to tell you any more of what happens in
episode 4. I’m just going to tell you to watch it for yourself.
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