Have I said before how much I love Grown-ish? Well I do! They can go from comedy, to depth, to nostalgic teen 80’s movie vibes, to ROM-COM and now to discussing cultural appropriation among other minorities. DEEP right? Do you think it’s possible for another person to be accused of cultural appropriation if they are in fact a minority themselves? That’s what this weeks Grown-ish dives deep into, when Vivek is accused of appropriating black culture and taking his love for black culture a little too far in Dougie’s eyes. Read on for my review, I was given some perspective, perhaps you will too.
Vivek has lived at the historically black dorm of Hawkins for two years now. I never blinked at eye at this because I felt like the black dorm is where he feels comfortable and clearly he feels very comfortable with black people, the problem for Doug is, he’s NOT black. I feel like this show has made Vivek the comic relief and the butt of many jokes. There was that one episode last season where he was dealing drugs (he still is) and got beat up and sent to the hospital, but that was his only serious episode. I felt like the writers were most definitely telling a story that needed to be told. Vivek does make some off color remarks thinking that it’s acceptable because he sees himself as being one of the boys and being black, Doug is like STOP. So what is appropriate? I’m black, I certainly have a lot of friends who are not black, I’ve had this conversation before and don’t think I haven’t given Kim K and Taylor Swift the side eye on more than one occasion. Aaron makes a good point when he says, “black culture is pop culture.”
Everyone weighs in on the Vivek situation and everyone has an opinion. Nomi thinks it’s not just black culture that is appropriated, true, think Kim K and the whole Kimono fiasco in which she apologized. Ana feels like everyone is special and entitled to feel that way. Have several seats Ana. Zoey makes a good point, because Vivek is a minority and what’s more he’s even more so at Cal-U, there are not a lot of students who look like him or understand his background, he feels really comfortable with the friends he’s established with Zoey and her crew. I think Vivek fits right in, he did need a cultural lesson on what’s appropriate from his friends to gain some insight, but lesson learned, everyone needs to move on. Doug can hold a grudge though, which actually annoys me because he’s always angry at someone or something another stereotype. Put that in your pipe and smoke it Grown-ish writers!
Meanwhile in plot B, Zoey gets a service project in accordance with her academic probation and she styles a high school girl for her prom. Zoey is learning ya’ll! Home girl is holding down a job, putting gas in her car, spending less money and keeping her opinions to herself, for the most part. Do ya’ll remember when she tried to style Jazz and Sky last season? They were all like “Bitch, we look like Oprah’s grandma!” LMAO! They really did. And Zoey was all pouty and like “But it’s couture!” This time she listens to her client and styles her perfectly and it’s what the client wanted and they were both happy with the end result. Zoey is happy and I’m happy she’s learning from her past mistakes and finding her way. That’s Growth.
Grown-ish airs Wednesday’s on Freeform at 8/7c.