“When They See Us” Is Triggering. That’s Why You Should Watch It
Ava DuVernay’s Netflix miniseries pulls back the layers of a corrupt, barbaric system that devalues Black and Brown lives.
Ava DuVernay’s new four-part series When They See Us, which had its debut on Netflix last week, was hard to watch.
I knew the story of the “Central Park Five” before watching the miniseries. I was a ninth-grader in April 1989 when the story of the brutal rape of a White woman jogger in New York’s Central Park went national. I was 15 years old when young boys around my age were sentenced: Yusef Salaam, 15, Antron McCray, 15, Kevin Richardson, 14, and Raymond Santana Jr., 14, to juvenile detention centers; and Korey Wise, 16, to an adult prison for the crime, which none of them committed.
Because I knew the story and the outcome, my guard was down a...