LOS ANGELES ― A White college student goes out to party costumed as Black rapper Lil Wayne, angering African-Americans who see it as evidence of insidious campus racism.
The incident may sound familiar but it’s fictional, part of a five-episode arc in the upcoming season of “Switched at Birth,” the Freeform (formerly ABC Family) channel drama.
While Black student protests at campuses nationwide have made news headlines, “Switched at Birth” is providing a rare, if not unprecedented, TV dramatization of the turmoil.
With characters in college, the series has “both the ability and the responsibility to tell those stories,” executive producer Lizzy Weiss said.
“We are really trying to be accurate and honest about both sides of the debate,” she said. The White student, for example, contends he was celebrating his favorite hip-hop artist, not mocking Blacks, with the costume.
But the climactic episode, scheduled to tape this week, belongs to the protesters. The series returns in spring, with the date yet to be announced.
“That’s the point in the story where we realized we needed to shift perspective entirely and let our Black characters lead their own story. … We see the entire episode from their points of view,” Weiss said.
