Graphic courtesy of WikiMedia Commons
By Sabryna Coppola ’22
A&E Reporter
Content Warning: This article includes mentions of racism and violence against POC.
Imagine a world where police wear face masks, not to protect themselves from a virus, but to hide their identities from the public. This is the case in HBO’s series “Watchmen,” adapted from a comic book of the same name. HBO made this show free to watch without a subscription from June 19 to June 21, the weekend of Juneteenth.
In the very first scene, we see a small boy sitting in a movie theater and watching a silent film about Marshall Bass Reeves, a Black policeman exposing a crooked white sheriff. He looks up in adoration, but is quickly shaken out of his trance when the ceiling starts to crumble. His mother takes him outside where the viewers see a horrific scene: the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. The little boy escapes with a few others, but his parents do not survive the attack. He looks back on the rubble of Tulsa, holding a crying baby who escaped with him.
As Slate pointed out, many Americans had not learned about this historic tragedy, likely because of its omission from public education. In 1921, Tulsa, OK, a city known for its economic success as “Black Wall Street,” was destroyed by white supremacists, killing residents of the town. On June 10, President Donald Trump announced that he would hold a rally in Tulsa, OK on Juneteenth. He did eventually move it to June 20 after public outcry, claiming he did not know the significance of the date. Even if he was ignorant of Juneteenth’s importance, the date and location would make the rally an inexcusable act of racism against Black people.
The creator of the show, Damon Lindelof, said, “We agreed that the only way to [portray the Tulsa Race Massacre] with true authenticity was to not take any liberties whatsoever,” in an interview with Slate. “Everything we committed to film had to be a factual account from the actual massacre.” He also admitted that he learned about the event from Ta-Nehisi Coates’ essay, “The Case for Reparations.”
Reparations also play an important part in “Watchmen.” In this alternate history, reparations have been distributed to victims of racial violence. Individuals can test their DNA to determine eligibility for reparations (only awarded to survivors of violence and their direct descendants), as well as map their family tree (many of which had been obscured by the separation of families). Poor white people in the area are upset about the allocation of wealth, and it leads to increased racism and violence in the town.
This part of the show becomes complicated, especially in relation to the current protests against police brutality. In “Watchmen,” the Tulsa police force is targeted and attacked by white supremacists in their homes on Christmas Eve. This event, dubbed “White Night,” causes the senator of Oklahoma to require all police officers to wear masks while on duty to protect their identities.
All of these factors bear a striking resemblance to the situations we are currently in. While the masks we wear today are to protect ourselves and others from COVID-19, police officers — especially those who hide their badges — have used them at protests to help shield their identities.
“I think we’ve all accepted there’s a divide in American culture, but I never thought it would be about something like this, especially when we see all the countries that have gotten control of the spread did so when everyone wore masks,” Lindelof said. “The calculus has somehow become, ‘strong people don’t wear them, scared people do,’ which literally makes me want to never stop screaming. Fortunately, said screams are muffled by my mask.”
Two principal characters in the show deal with being Black police officers. Their moral struggle with the force and its bastardization of upholding justice echoes the real-life public demand for accountability of police officers, especially regarding their treatment of Black people. One of these characters is Will (Louis Gossett Jr.), a Black police officer in New York in the 1940s, instated as one of the first Black officers of the NYPD. Driven by a desire for justice, he is crushed to discover the corruption of the force.
The show also follows lead character Angela (Regina King), one of the officers attacked on White Night. The attack only cements her in her pursuit for justice, this time under the guise of Sister Night, the titular character of a blaxploitation movie from her childhood. The unfolding connection between white supremacists and police officers is clear within the show, eerily echoing the racist actions of America’s police officers.
Considering that other platforms made some of their educational content regarding the Black Lives Matter movement free without subscriptions (Netflix’s publication of “13th” on YouTube, for instance), only making this show available for 72 hours was not the most accessible choice on HBO’s part. That being said, it was an appropriate show to make available on Juneteenth, for viewers of color seeking heroes that look like them and for white viewers to learn more about the erasure of the nation’s abuse against people of color. It is also a reminder for white viewers to diversify the content we consume, not only for the purpose of educating ourselves. Continuous consumption of supporting art, culture and stories is an important part of being an ally.