Black-ish season 4, episode 18: Black Math
In the latest episode of Black-ish, it is time for Junior to pick a college. Holding acceptance letters from Howard and Stanford, his parents are split on which school he should attend.
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Last season we watched as Zoey went off to college in the episode title “Liberal Arts.” The episode served as an intro to Yara Shahidi’s spinoff, Grown-ish which just wrapped its first season on Freeform. Junior will not be getting a spinoff but his college decision still deserved an episode. His character has not received a lot of the attention this season, and even in this episode he didn’t get to truly shine.
When the letter from Howard comes Dre is ecstatic. Howard is his alma mater and, though he’s had a rough time relating to his son, he wants his son to be a legacy. It doesn’t hurt at all that Howard is offering a full-ride. Meanwhile, Junior has an offer from Stanford as well. They aren’t offering a full-ride but they have the benefit of being much closer to home. More importantly to Bow, it’s a school who “everyone” sees as prestigious.
“I’m going to Stanford!”
After opening both letters Junior says he’s going to Stanford with almost no hesitation. He goes as far as to slap the Howard acceptance letter out of his father’s hands while he celebrates. Bow is also celebrating but, of course, Dre is upset.
Dre feels like his son is rejecting Howard because “white people” decided Stanford was better. He feels that Howard should be viewed on the same level as those schools and names successful Howard grads. Not only does he think that Howard is worthy, he wants Junior to experience a “Blackening.”
I thought you went to Harvard
Later, at work, Dre brings up the issue to his co-workers. However, when he says that Junior doesn’t want to go to Howard, his white co-workers think he’s saying Harvard. Dre and Charlie correct them but now they’ve created another issue. Dre’s boss, Mr. Stevens, is confused. All this time he thought Dre went to Harvard. He says without hesitation that he wouldn’t have hired him if he realized he went to a “school for blacks.”
This leads to the conversation about why black people need their own schools. Dre explains that blacks couldn’t always go to the predominantly white schools. He then points out that he’s at a table with them and he makes the same money so Howard must not have been too bad for him. It is almost revealed that Dre is NOT making the same money but Mr. Stevens decides it’s time for a 9:30 AM lunch break.
We’re going to Zamunda
When Dre comes home he smacks the Stanford letter out of Junior’s hands and tells him they’re going to Howard. Bow previously took Junior on his college tours but did not take him to any HBCU’s. Dre plans to make up for this mistake.
When the Cali based family arrives in D.C. it is snowing and cold. The first thing they see when they reach the campus is a protest. Dre is initially excited but then sees that it’s not a protest against “the man” but a protest between two groups of black students.
Dre moves to the library and tries to start-up the “H-U” call but instead of getting a “YOU KNOW!” back he’s told to be quiet. Nothing is how he remembered it and he knows that his tour was a failure.
When they arrive back home he has a tough talk with Bow and they further point out that he had a hard time assimilating back into society after being on Howard’s campus. He didn’t know the songs or the TV shows that his coworkers were talking about when he got back. Bow uses this to point out why Junior going to a school like Stanford will prepare him to deal with different types of people he’ll meet in his work life.
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Final Answer
Dre comes to Junior to give him his blessing to go to Stanford with his tail between his legs. That’s when Junior surprises him and says he doesn’t want to go to Stanford anymore. He then explains that his experience at Howard was completely different from what Dre saw. He said that it made him proud and excited to be black. During the protest he liked seeing black people on both sides of the argument. At the library he saw all kinds of black kids. There were rich kids, poor kids, kids from another country, Democrats, and Republicans. He appreciated seeing this type of black diversity and wanted to be a part of that.
When the parents push back with the assimilation argument he says that he doesn’t have to worry about that. He’s been immersed in white culture all of his life. He may even introduce some of his new classmates to things they may not be into currently.
Of course, Bow is disappointed as Dre has managed to win again.
Next: Modern Family Recap: Royal Visit
Conclusion
After the episode I took to Twitter to see what the people were talking about. It appears that the way that HBCU’s were discussed was a polarizing issue and deserves a discussion of its own. For what it’s worth, I see that the writers wanted to set up the negative takes so that Junior’s final reveal would disprove what was said. The question is whether or not the execution makes up for the fact that you spent 20 minutes with nothing but negative takes on HBCU’s . Stay tuned for a separate piece discussing this issue specifically.
In the meantime, Black-ish returns next Tuesday at 9/8 Central on ABC.