[ "White Fashion" is a must-see on multiple levels, forcing us to
ask: Where are we, really, right now?] [[link removed]]

PORTSIDE CULTURE

A SAVAGELY FUNNY ATLANTA SKEWERS CULTURAL OPPORTUNISTS  
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Michael Martin
April 21, 2022
AV Club
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_ "White Fashion" is a must-see on multiple levels, forcing us to
ask: Where are we, really, right now? _

Brian Tyree Henry in Atlanta, Photo: Rob Youngson/FX

 

_Atlanta_ [[link removed]] is in the midst
of a European rap tour, not to mention an extended existential
question about whether the events depicted in the show are actually
taking part in its characters’ previously established reality. In
other words, it’s not even within glancing distance of your standard
sitcom. But even if you’ve never seen the show or don’t consider
the 30-minute-drama-with-laughs your thing, “White Fashion” is a
great piece of standalone television about modern pop culture, a sharp
and occasionally savage takedown of cultural co-opters and what you
might call the social-justice-industrial complex. It’s a deep and
thorough excoriation of empty signifiers and how big money tends to
end up solving problems for about the same percentage of people who
don’t really need it.

_Atlanta_ has taken on the co-opting of Black culture before, but not
so comprehensively as in this episode, 33 minutes packed with ideas
and melancholy-but-precise comic moments. The main premise: The crew
is in London, and Esco Esco, an LVMH-style luxury brand that
incorporates streetwear, is embroiled in a race-related controversy
and needs Paper Boi to help bail them out with some good PR. (Their
funny/horrifying signature item is a Central Park Five shirt styled
like a sports jersey, with a 5 in the appropriate numerical spot.)
He’s been asked to serve on their “diversity advisory
committee,” which will be introduced to the press that afternoon.
(Bryan Tyree Henry gets another good showcase in this episode,
starting with the scene of him ordering lunch, then negotiating three
years of free clothes—he’s fearsomely funny.)

REVIEWS [[link removed]] ATLANTA
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"White Fashion"

A-

SEASON

3

EPISODE

6

In a scene that’s heavy but deftly directed, Al is being fitted for
a custom suit, and Earn is concerned this is an “Uncle Tom photo
op.” He urges Al to suggest the company do something sustainable, to
reinvest in Black communities and mind “the streets,” while Al
tells him to get off the high horse: “Fuck the streets,” he says.
“I’ve shot people.” We work hard; take all the free samples
possible, he suggests.

_Atlanta_ has introduced its share of memorable guest stars this
season, and it’s here that the show unveils a character as specific
in type as Socks and Wiley were amorphous
[[link removed]]—Khalil,
an “activist/writer/foodie” who has refined himself into sort of a
professional brand cleaner for racially related missteps. At the press
event, the satire edges close going overly broad. (“Is this your
first time apologizing for white people?” Khalil asks Al. “The
dinners are amazing. I haven’t paid for a meal in 73 police
shootings.” Then, a reporter asks Paper Boi if this campaign will
end racism.) But the heavy strokes paint a clear picture: There
isn’t anything subtle about systemic racism or clumsy corporate
attempts to profit from it. Fisayo Akinade is spot-on as the obnoxious
influencer. And the way this episode wraps, the tone fits.

The actual “diversity advisory committee” meeting almost takes us
to _Dr. Strangelove_ satirical heights: Every member is primarily
eager to line their own pockets and closets, suggesting the fashion
brand buy thousands of copies of a book they’ve written (a likely
nod to the former Baltimore mayor’s scandal
[[link removed]]),
hook up their self-serving organization, or just buy them shoes. Al,
of course, wants to actually help Black people and proposes Earn’s
idea about a campaign to reinvest in the hood, which is tepidly
received but ultimately approved. But they warn him not to be too
earnest: “We’ve been doing this social-justice thing a long
time,” says one.

Ultimately, Paper Boi’s idea is diluted into a meaninglessly
“inclusive” moody black-and-white commercial, a dead-on,
heavy-handed montage of various minorities, including a Native
American and gender-fluid cowboy making out. In a funny confrontation
scene, an infuriated Al claims,”You All Lives Mattered my shit!”
before the most superficial character gives him the ultimate dose of
truth about business vs. charity.

The second plot track allows us to spend more time with Darius
(Lakeith Stanfield)—always an excellent time—as he revisits his
Nigerian heritage (but his testicles go unmentioned), taking a white
Esco Esco staffer to find joloff, the traditional West African rice
dish. (In perhaps the line of the episode, Darius describes it as
“like your taste buds are being scammed by a Nigerian prince.”)
Darius takes her to the spot, where she’s wide-eyed and reverential.
By the end of the episode, she’s bought the building from the
landlord and set up a food truck outside with a dish named after
Darius. (This is also perilously close to over-broad—as Darius
trudges away, a depressed conduit for this appropriation, a jogger
urges him to recycle his trashed meal—but the pacing and
performances make it work.)

The third storyline finally reunites Earn and Van, and it has
qualities that are both jarring and dreamy. After months apart, the
pair reunite by accident in a hotel, where Van is placid, an
almost _Stepford Wives _level of chill, urging Earn to relax (again)
as she seems distinctly uninterested in seeing him. A woman marches
into the lobby and accuses Van of shoplifting and attempts to restrain
her in a citizen’s arrest, a nod to the Arlo Hotel incident. It’s
jarring and well-directed (by Ibra Ake, who also provided the script).
But the hotel manager turns out to be Black and turns the agitator
away, and Earn, suggesting that he and Van are newly arrived guests
whose reservations have been lost, gets them a free night in a plush
suite. This parallels the earlier scene at Esco Esco, in which Paper
Boi cannily negotiates his worth in clothes to assuage the brand’s
racial guilt; here, Earn got a fringe benefit based on spectacle.
Neither sit well with him. The twist: Van may have shoplifted after
all.

Once again, this is not the Van we’ve come to know. Ultimately, the
episode closes with Earn waking up in a hotel room—just as he did
after “Three Slaps” and before the events of “Sinterklaas Is
Coming To Town”
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she’s gone again. Exactly how many of the previous events, if any,
were a dream? We’ve been getting hints that this season’s
happenings are taking part mostly in Earn’s head, and Van notes that
Darius thinks they’re living in a simulation.

One issue with not knowing the full extent of this season’s framing
is that the creators’ intent is unclear. It’s possible that in
real life, Earn—once homeless, now a manager of an internationally
successful recording act—is feeling guilty about making money in an
industry that may perpetuate problems which urgently need
solving. “The Big Payback”
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addressed this: In the grand scheme of things, who should be
compensated for what? “White Fashion” asks, Who deserves to cut
corners to recoup in a fundamentally corrupt and shameful system? The
season will play differently once it’s bingeable and you don’t
have so much time to wonder about how much is occurring in actuality.
In the meantime, this episode of _Atlanta_ forces you to ask: Where
are we, really, right now? And that seems to be precisely the point.

Stray observations

* The episode has many great throwaway lines, like the Esco Esco
designer appraising a shivering model: “Get this girl a
cigarette—she’s freezing” and Khalil demanding tickets to
see Julia Roberts performing in _Raisin in the Sun_
[[link removed]] (“and
it better not be her understudy this time”).
* Another casual exchange packs a serious wallop: as Van and Earn
are chilling in their hotel room, he randomly reminiscences about the
Nickelodeon cable network’s annual Halloween campaign Nick or Treat
[[link removed]]. “I never heard
‘Nick or Treat,’” he says.
* Darius has some great moments for his character. When he’s
describing joloff: “I feel like boneless fish is an abomination.”
* The Nigerian movie _Sharon Stone _playing in the restaurant
is actually a real thing
[[link removed]] (and Sharon happens to
be the name of the Esco Esco flunky.)
* Also suggesting what we’re seeing is a dream: Time warps a bit.
Earn and company are in London long enough for a TV commercial be
written, cast and produced, and a restaurant be purchased and
converted to a food truck. How long is this tour exactly?
* Those Darius moments, and frankly how good Zazie Beetz is every
time she appears on screen, make me feel like we haven’t spent
enough time with either one this season, “Sinterklaas” aside.
There hasn’t been a Beetz-focused episode on the level
of “Helen”
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a Stanfield showcase like “Teddy Perkins”
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season. Will that change before the season is over, with four more
episodes to go?

* Atlanta [[link removed]]
* cultural co-optation [[link removed]]
* social justice industrial complex
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* non profit industrial complex
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