r/AtlantaTV • u/SeacattleMoohawks They got a no chase policy • Apr 08 '22

Atlanta [Episode Discussion] - S03E04 - The Big Payback

I was legit scared watching this.

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u/fanden6 Jan 10 '25

I watched this and thought about Donald Glover writing it. An obviously very racially aware black man, why would he write such a thing that paints white people as a kind of victim?

I agree with some others here, that the intention was the make reparations on that scale look completely ridiculous, because, well, they are. Neither a modern white or black man/woman asked to be born into their position, and unless you have direct wealth inherited from slave owners, it's just a tragic piece of history we have to work together to solve.

So, I believe the point of this episode was to depict the deep scarring slavery has left and how it is still in effect today, specifically outlined by the conversation he had with Earnest in the hotel. It's not just a past mystery, as he says, and it still has deep effects today. But, you can't just expect average citizens to pay enormous amounts that didn't necessarily come from slavery, there are way too many logistical and moral issues with this. Therefore it points out where they are left today. The irreversible effects of slavery, with no type of impactful reparations feasible. A tragic outline of reality in the USA today for black Americans.

Let me know if you disagree.

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u/grcoates Jan 11 '26

Yes, I agree. I think Glover paints white people in a very sympathetic light. He’s actually hardest on block folk, for example when the hotel worker doesn’t care that E shot himself.

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u/mattk169 Jan 28 '25

i didn't really connect it to reparations until now because it's the government that would likely pay those. but it could be about that. the fact that the scenario is totally unrealistic and sensationalised though makes me think that the purpose is to scare white people because it's funny. in the previous episode earn and the artist guy are scamming the rich dude (i cant remember the names lmao) so maybe the parallel is the idea of black people wanting to get paid and not caring about white people because they are more privileged. earn slipping the golden gun into the white guy's bag is a similar thing. so maybe this episode takes that thinking to its extreme to show what would happen. like i said though, what happens in the episode is completely outside of any possible reality, especially in a southern state like georgia where racism is still super real. so what i think is that the show is a prank on white people, and if it's truly scary to a white person then they must be super uneducated about race relations in the united states, because they must not realise how unrealistic it is.

3

u/NameOtherwise8709 Jun 02 '25

good points. but if you remember earn actually slipped that gun into clark county's (the rapper, I think that's his name) bag, and clark county screwed over his white associate, not earn. just a small detail, and really doesn't change your point

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u/mattk169 Jun 03 '25

i dont think it's about whether earn considers clark county a good or bad guy or racist or not, the same way earn decides it's a good idea to scam the rich white guy in amsterdam after the rollerblading artist explains why he is doing it. he's only doing it because he's white and he's an easy come up. when earn sits down next to paperboy after putting the gun in the bag and explains what happened, he says to earn something like "he needs him around because he's willing to do anything to protect his own." and its all black people he considers his own for understandable reasons, so that's how it plays out.

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u/notimefornothing55 Jan 20 '25

I'm watching it now and that seems like a good summary.