BABY Can You See Me?
In 1989, five Black and brown boys were arrested for allegedly gang-raping a white woman in Central Park. Portrayed as a pack of animalistic young men “wilding” in the park and brutally beating and gang-raping a female jogger simply for the thrill of it, the five boys were demonized in the press, convicted by a jury, and handed stiff sentences.
But as Ava DuVernay’s groundbreaking Netflix series When They See Us heartbreakingly illustrates, the conviction of the Central Park Five was actually a terrible miscarriage of justice perpetrated by a system whose racial biases warped its view of the boys who would—over a decade later—all be completely exonerated. At the time of their arrest, now-President Donald Trump bought $85,000 worth of full-page newspaper ads that read, “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!” The ads, and his open letter and public outcry, helped shaped white (and wealthy) New Yorker’s opinions of the accused.
Despite occurring 30 years ago, the tragedy of the’s transgender subplot. Not to mention, the havoc Trump continues to wield on the lives of people of color and trans people.
