The CBS sitcom “Touched by an Angel” is being reexamined by way of a brand new lens as a sophisticated episode about racism is being recirculated on social media.
The drama starred beloved “Harlem Nights” actress Della Reese as Tess, a supervisor of kinds for angels in coaching, and Roma Downey as Monica, an angel grappling to grasp the human expertise.
It has develop into a subject of debate amid outcry over white writer Sam Forster disguising himself as Black to “doc how racism persists in American society” for his new e-book “Seven Shoulders: Taxonomizing Racism in Fashionable America.” John Howard Griffin predated Forster by a long time with the same social experiment for his e-book “Black Like Me,” printed in 1961.
Backlash consists of individuals stating the apparent, that he may have spoken with Black individuals as a substitute of utilizing blackface to have a Black expertise. Which, therein lies the connection to “Touched by an Angel.”
Reacting to Forster’s debacle, an X person wrote, “That jogs my memory of that episode of ‘touched by an angel’ when monica was Black. when these yt males had been chasing her, she prayed SO exhausting for God to reverse that thang.”
Final summer season, I disguised myself as a Black man and traveled all through the US to doc how racism persists in American society.
Writing Seven Shoulders was one of many hardest issues I’ve ever performed as a journalist.
It’s out on Could thirtieth:https://t.co/jK2kvIPh1H pic.twitter.com/TE8mEfOiHi
— Sam Forster (@ForsterSam) Could 28, 2024
Throughout season 5 episode 23 “Black Like Monica” (1999), Downey’s character is unable to make the connection between the lynching of a person named Moody in a rural southern Illinois city and race. An investigation into the tragedy is delayed because the mayor is making ready to welcome Rosa Parks for a civil rights celebration and doesn’t desire a hate crime to damage the deliberate occasions.
On account of Monica’s probing for solutions in regards to the homicide, she is locked up, and on the behest of God, she undergoes a surprising transformation — her pores and skin turns into brown and her hair goes from straight brown locs to curly tresses styled in an afro.
That is what occurred to that writer that grew to become black for his or her story https://t.co/ChVvcrxn78
— Mr. I Advised You So (@DotMyNameOnYou) Could 30, 2024
Later within the episode, whereas making an attempt to flee two males suspected of killing Moody, she says, “In that second I noticed all the pieces. I used to be human and I used to be going to die.” As she hid behind a tree, gasping to catch her breath, she prayed, “Oh pricey God in Heaven, I’m so afraid, please, please, make me white once more.” By the point one of many males finds her, she is white, panicked, and pleading, “Please don’t,” solely to be instructed to calm down and that he was in search of a “n—er lady.”
In one other scene, whereas on a bus with Parks, Tess tells Monica that God allowed her to expertise being Black “to alter your coronary heart as a result of you possibly can’t go on preaching in opposition to the darkness till you’ve seen it in your self first. And there’s not too many politically appropriate methods to try this, you simply have to leap in and dig deep till you face your self.” X customers had been surprised by the forgotten episode.
“Is she in blackface? am I tripping?” requested one dumbfounded particular person. Some others felt that the episode couldn’t have garnered Reese’s approval. They wrote, “Wooooow, I used to like this present. Della musta been in another country once they did this episode.”
A 3rd person stated, “So that is the place Rachel Dolezal obtained her inspiration from lol.” Rachel Dolezal, often known as Nkechi Diallo, is a white lady who fooled the Spokane, Washington, chapter of the NAACP, the place she served as president, and plenty of others that she was a fair-skinned Black lady for many years.
Rachel Dolezal, who pretended to be Black for years, says she hasn’t been capable of finding a job for six years
“Being a maid at a resort, working at a on line casino. I wasn’t in a position to get any of these jobs both.” https://t.co/USa3TYEjtU pic.twitter.com/jBEynKiwZV
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) February 11, 2021
She defended the lie, saying that she denounced her whiteness and its privilege with a view to be a real ally. Regardless of being outcast for cosplaying her cultural id, she continues to see herself as a Black lady.
And a fourth particular person shared, “And naturally this actor is married to Mark Burnett-the man that has the recordings of trump throughout The Apprentice utilizing racial slurs, however received’t launch it.” It was additionally famous that Monica “prayed to be white & to not finish racism.”
“Touched by an Angel” ran for seven seasons between 1994 and 2003. Reese handed away in 2017 on the age of 86. The long-running collection spawned the short-lived spinoff “Promised Land.”
