Issues In American Crime

American Crime was easily the most ethnically complicated show I have ever watched. If you took all of today’s modern problems and threw them in a blender, American Crime would come out of it. American Crime takes its viewers on a rocky ride through an investigated high school male-on-male rape. It ends with the victim in jail for the long haul. What happens in between is what needs to be talked about. There are many different issues in American Crime that will be discussed. Each issue will be analyzed through in-class readings and other pieces on the show. Daniel D’Accario, a writer for Time Magazine brilliantly wraps up American Crime. He writes, “Its many strengths (and few weaknesses) stem from its willingness to go to excesses in depicting …show more content…
Watching this show timed up perfectly when Donald Trump talked about his conversation with Billy Bush as “locker room talk.” There is a stark difference between locker room talk and sexual harassment. The basketball team’s locker room talk in this show is vile, and vastly over exaggerated. The locker room talk affects Eric and his masculinity throughout the show. In the beginning, Eric is met with questions of ‘who he’d rather bang’ or which race of girl he’ll go for next. Once he reveals he is gay, that all changes. Teammates are open about not wanting to share a locker room with him. The sense of “locker room talk” is also what induces Taylor to kill the man on the basketball team. When some of the players are out to dinner, Kevin gives them “locker room talk” about teaching Taylor a lesson. The boys take it seriously and go to kick Taylor’s ass. That leads to one pulled trigger and one dead high schooler. Ryan Green, a writer for ABC, writes about Eric’s treatment in this show. He writes, “His basketball teammates are disgusted at the idea of having to share a locker room with him, and Coach Dan Sullivan has to ask the students to give him more applause following Eric’s awkward, Leslie Graham-penned speech of gratitude.” (Green, 4) He becomes an outcast on every level, with sports culture pushing at all of his …show more content…
The use of drugs in American Crime vastly changes the outcome of the show, but also takes effect on most of the main characters. When Taylor is at his darkest times, he buys a grab bag of pills from the basketball coaches daughter. He takes these pills only hours before killing the player on the basketball team. Eric’s overdose is drug-induced, and it almost takes his life. Both of these drug problems occurred because of mental health issues. Both Taylor and Eric were being bullied and tormented into their own suicides. Thankfully neither of them got that far. When Taylor is really at a bad place, he takes a bunch of different drugs and goes into the forest. Pilot Viruet, a writer for A.M. Club, details this pivotal scene. She writes, “Taylor is…trying to find ways that will make him feel better and feel like less of a victim who everyone is pitying. He gets drugs from Becca and then later steals a gun from the woman who used to take care of him. There’s a brief moment of anxiety when Taylor walks into the woods with the gun and a single gunshot is heard…After a drug trip in the woods, still-tripping Taylor scribbles a hit list: Eric, Kevin, Wes, Dr. Graham.” (Viruet, 8) This shows that his mental health combined with his drug use was pushing Taylor to the brink of some extremely horrible crimes. Taylor’s mental health takes a surprising turn at the end. Him accepting a 10-year