The Johnson family is bursting out into song inBlack-ishs season 4 premiere.
What ensues is aHamilton-inspired, blunt discussion about the countrys uncomfortable past.
So, I did not have any question that it was going to be something that made people uncomfortable.
Kelsey McNeal/ABC
Below, Barris previews the powerful season premiere and explains why he decided to tackle such a fraught topic.
My son was 7 and said, Dad, you know Christopher Columbus never set foot in North America?
I looked at him and was like, I think youre mistaken, son.
Kelsey McNeal/ABC
And we started looking it up and I was like, Oh my god!
At the same time as it would be uncomfortable to say what Juneteenth was about.
Juneteenth, for me, was a joke growing up.
Then I started thinking, Why is the last official day of slavery a joke?
It made me really want to embrace that.
Im not sure if you watch Donald Glovers showAtlanta, but they also did a Juneteenth episode.
Have you seen it?Yes.
For me, that did not inform the writing.
I appreciated the episode, though, but it did not inform the writing.
Musician Aloe Blacc guest-stars, and the Roots helped out with the music.
Ali Shaheed Muhammad from A Tribe Called Quest is also involved in it in a big way.
How did the cast react when you told them about the episode?
Did it give any of them of pause?They were blown away.
One of our writers, Gail Lerner, had suggested we do a musical.
The cast had been asking to do it because theyre all so musically inclined, the majority of them.
It would have felt too on the nose.
Black-ishpremieres Tuesday at 9 p.m.
