Eviction Notice On TV: Underground
"This thing we do, hurting each other over and over, we ain't come up with it. We just keep telling the story they wrote for us. you get hit out in them fields and that shame come and hit me. And I let you because I got so much shame of my own for the things I done to survive, that I think I deserve it."
-Ernestine Macon
This quote from Ernestine Macon, one of the breakout characters from the hit show Underground. Underground, a hit show produced by John Legend and Misha Green, is a in depth look into the lives of a group of slaves and their time on the Underground Railroad. Led by Rosalee Macon, now known as The Black Rose, season one explored what life was like on the Macon plantation and season two shows the real world that they so desperately wanted to get to. I could go on about the show but if you don't know about it, get into it. Like, for serious.
Ernestine is Rosalee's mother. She's the light skinned, long haired, body banging, nose up, head house slave who runs the plantation with her words, has Master Tom under her thumb and his wife at her neck. Despite Master Tom being Rosalee's father (yup, that's what I said), Rosalee ends up falling in love and agreeing to run away with Noah, a hot headed field hand, and 5 others from the plantation and become known as The Macon 7.
Eventually some of the Macon 7 make it to sweet freedom. Not included in that number is Ernestine. She never went on the journey but instead had her hand in several schemes to ensure her daughter survives. After the death of Master Tom, his wife sends Ernestine down the river to marshy, swampy plantation where she no longer holds the weight she did on the Macon plantation. Ernestine is forced to work in the fields harvesting God knows what under the hand of a cruel overseer.
She ends up a shell of her former self and in a relationship with right hand man whose secondary job is to keep the slaves high and docile. The relationship is much like Pookie and the prom queen from New Jack City. The hustle, get high, fight, repeat. Under the order of the overseer, the slaves need to be kept high and docile on a opioid liquid that they sniff throughout the day. These high trips open the door for the ghosts of Ernestine's past to literally haunt her, eventually leading her to a suicide attempt in front of the whole plantation.
Once she recovers from that her boyfriend professes his love to her and the brush with death has woken up the 'Stine (what those of us who love the show call her) we all know and love. As I was watching the show and 'Stine read her boo like that, my soul was revived! It was like a confirmation that Eviction is real. Guilt and shame ruining people's lives is real. Shame convinces us that we deserve every bad thing that happens to us and there's no sense in fighting to make things better.
All I could do was wonder if the rest of TV land caught that quick read and if they did, if they questioned themselves and the decisions they have made. Now, you may not have killed one of your closest friends to ensure your daughter made it to freedom (or maybe you have, i don't know) but are you letting shame keep you in a relationship, situation-ship, job, church, friendship that you know has run it's course? If so, it's definitely time for an eviction.
When I talk to people about Eviction Notice, they most often say it's a good topic for other people, not themselves. It amazes me the rose tinted glasses we see ourselves through, and yes I say WE because I too was that girl. In Eviction Notice, we explore these not so graceful topics of guilt and shame and I challenge you to take a deep, honest look at yourself to see if you too, could be living as Ernestine.
Order your copy today!