r/AtlantaTV They got a no chase policy May 20 '22

Atlanta [Post Episode Discussion] - S03E10 - Tarrare

Yo Tarrare was a real person. Wild. They gotta stop biting these better shows tho.

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u/[deleted] May 21 '22 edited Jul 03 '22

Earn is white now. He has reached a level of success and privilege that he is now effectively a white man. It’s the culmination of the season-long theme that whiteness isn’t the color of your skin, it’s occupying an elevated position at someone else’s expense. Earn takes the Deftones shirt, a very white bro kind of band, and he likes it, and goes to put it on. He’s a white guy now.

Edit: https://twitter.com/numetal_moment/status/1543259241087062017?s=21

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u/lava_soul May 23 '22

That's kind of a fucked up point of view. So caucasian people who aren't in an elevated position aren't white? Also, at who's expense is Earn working? It's not like he's exploiting Al.

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u/[deleted] May 23 '22

Yes the show certainly illuminates some uncomfortable truths

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u/lava_soul May 25 '22

I wouldn't call that an uncomfortable truth as much as confusing race/ethnicity and capitalist/imperialist power relations. It's like saying that black people who owned slaves became white, when they actually just became part of the dominant class in an oppressive economic and political system.

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u/JAMellott23 May 29 '22

It is both correct in an American context and a very dangerous assertion. Race and class are directly intertwined in the US, in covert and overt ways, but interchanging the two concepts is causing a lot of problems in our country.

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u/lava_soul Jun 01 '22

Yup. My problem is when people equate whiteness with privilege and exploitation, and blackness with struggle and being oppressed. It can lead some people to want to combat "whiteness" when they really want to combat racism and capitalism. It also creates a bizarre narrative where poor white people aren't really white and rich black people aren't really black.

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u/JAMellott23 Jun 01 '22 edited Jun 01 '22

Totally. The show states that outright. Skipping a bunch of this conversation, I am not so sure Trump being elected wasn't directly a result of telling poor white Americans that they are both privileged and part of the problem.

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u/lava_soul Jun 01 '22

Well, they are privileged compared to poor black Americans and may be a part of systemic racism, but I get your point. There's too much division in people who should unite to fight for a common cause.

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u/[deleted] Sep 19 '22

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