On Thursday, January 25, 2018, Shonda Rhimes and Grey's Anatomy aired one of the most powerful episodes I have seen to date.
It is never easy for a popular show to put out an episode that has something political in it. But that is what Grey's Anatomy did this episode. During this episode, they took on the powerful topic of African Americans and the police force. The way that they talked about this was so powerful because it shows us what really happens and not just what the news tells us.
The episode started off with a trauma coming into the ER with a pre-teen African American male who had a GSW to the arm. The reason that he had a GSW is that the police officer believed that he was trying to break into a house due to the fact that he was climbing into a window in the house. He actually was not trying to break into a house, rather that he was at his own home and he had forgotten his keys. When coming to the ER the first thing that Jackson Avery does is question the police officer on why he shot the pre-teen when he was unarmed.
This is the first thing that started off this episode to be so powerful. April Kepner, a white ER doctor did not understand why everybody was getting upset with her and would not let her help the way that she thought that she could help. The reason for this being is that she did not understand why the doctors took this special case to heart.
To end the episode we see a clip of Miranda Bailey and Ben Waren talking to their own pre-teen son about how he should deal with white police officers.
The reason why I want to say thank you to Grey's Anatomy for this episode is that as a white female, just like April Kepner, I believe that more people need to see what really happens in these types of situations. I will never fully understand what it is like to be an African American who has to fear of getting shot every time they see a police officer. This episode educates everybody on what they need to do when it comes to these types of situations so we do not lose anymore African Americans to gun violence by police.
