Written by C Hues
May 20, 2022
Atlanta’s Season 3, Episode 9, “Rich Wigga, Poor Wigga” shows that race is not biologically real and is a social product of American society.[1] The episode cleverly uses the meanings of names to reveal the irony of characters and to foreshadow their social situations. “Rich Wigga, Poor Wigga” substantiates that blackness is not biological, but that blackness is defined by a certain culture influenced by slavery and defined by subsequent experiences (often traumatic). The main protagonist of the episode, Aaron, learns throughout copious conflicts and failures that he is indeed black, and that skin complexion and appearance do not define blackness.
In Atlanta, Season 3, Episode 9, main character Aaron has a distorted view on what should define blackness. Robert “Shea” Lee and his tribunal challenge Aaron and other students to understand that race is socially constructed. In real life, just as in the show, many people seem to have difficulty believing that race is a social construct. A recent incident showed a brave ride share driver refusing to allow two racist customers to stay in his vehicle because they expressed favorability towards him merely for being “white.”[2] In Buffalo, New York, an idiotic and hateful murderer opened fire and massacred black people simply because he thought he knew what being “black” meant, where “black” people lived, and that he could identify people as “black” simply based on their physical appearance.[3] One must wonder how many black people he has seen throughout his life who he mistakenly thought were white (simply based on his flawed perception of how black people are supposed to look). People often fool themselves into thinking that “black” people must look a certain way, or that “white” people look a certain way, and all have the same traits. I have been in taxis and other ride shares with drivers who have appeared to be “white” but upon further conversation have revealed themselves to be black and identify themselves as African American. I have also encountered some people who believe that black people are a monolith. Once, when meeting two people at a friend’s house, I experienced a deeply ignorant and asinine display of racism. These two geniuses suggested that all black people must look alike and that there was such a thing as a “black face” and a “white face” in which people could be identified racially by the color of their skin. This flawed ideology could not be further from the truth. For example, a 2006 DNA study by geneticist Mark Shriver revealed that,
• “58 percent of African Americans have at least 12.5 percent European ancestry (equivalent of one great-grandparent).
• 19.6 percent of African Americans have at least 25 percent European ancestry (equivalent of one grandparent).
• 1 percent of African Americans have at least 50 percent European ancestry (equivalent of one parent).”[4]
Further, A DNA study published in 2015 by the geneticist Katarzyna Bryc and her team at 23andMe reveals that “[g]enome wide ancestry estimates of African Americans show average proportions of 73.2% African, 24.0% European, and 0.8% Native American ancestry.”[5] Another study reveals that “Among African Americans, analysis of genomic admixture by a principal component-based approach indicates that the median proportion of European ancestry is 18.5% (25th–75th percentiles: 11.6–27.7%), with very large variation among individuals.”[6] As the study substantiates, “[t]here is a great deal of variation among the ancestry plots of the 365 self-identified African Americans in the study, ranging from an estimate of over 99% West African ancestry to an estimate of less than 1% West African ancestry (Fig. 2F).”[7] Therefore, people with as little as 1% sub-Saharan African ancestry can and sometimes identify as black, which corroborates that race has no real scientific basis and that physical appearance and traits vary tremendously among African Americans. According to Virginia law, if an individual was only 1/32 “black”, they were considered “black”.[8] As we can see, there is great genetic diversity within the African American people; thus, the tribunal were not judging Aaron simply “because [he’s] light-skinned”, as he stated. They were judging him on his blackness not by the amount of sub-Saharan African ancestry that he had; instead they made their decision not to give him the scholarship based on his cultural and social choice to identify as “white”. This is also why the tribunal compares Aaron to Clarence Thomas, the Supreme Court judge who is considered an Uncle Tom in the African American community. One member of the tribunal says that Aaron is “white”, but not as “white” as Clarence Thomas (who is visibly much darker in skin tone and much more likely has a greater degree of sub-Saharan African ancestry than Aaron), which shows that it is Aaron’s attitude and social choices to distant himself from his community that define him as “white”.[9] As there is myriad ancestry within the African American people, “blackness” in America is defined by a shared cultural and socioeconomic experience which is predominantly the product of slavery. This is another reason why the tribunal (led by Robert S. Lee) refuses to give Felix the scholarship; Felix as an African immigrant, notes that he is technically blacker than Aaron in the sense that he has more sub-Saharan African ancestry.[10] However, as Aaron says,
“I understand what he means, You’re not really black. You have an entire culture to pull from. You know where you’re from, you can trace your lineage, and you have a country to go home to. That’s not really black.”[11]
Felix is not “really black” because the first method that African Americans use to measure blackness is through slavery and the destruction of our culture, names, and religion. Part of being black in America is that we don’t have a “country to go home to”, which many white people do. Just as a white American can easily identify the country (or countries) where their ancestors have hailed from and claim it as part of their identity, Felix can identify his ancestors from Nigeria and claim that as his heritage. For example, I have met some people from sub-Saharan Africa or the Caribbean who identify as black, but not as African American. Thus, these people realize that they are black in the sense of having shared ancestry with Black Americans, but they are still culturally and socially different than African Americans. Ultimately, these people may not be considered “black” in the same sense as an African American, but only “black” in terms of having genetic or ancestral roots in sub-Saharan Africa.
The episode cleverly uses black and white film, similarly to the movie Passing,[12] which was also about a black person who spends much of her life “coasting on [her] whiteness”[13] and her racial identity as white. Just like Aaron, this woman endures racial insults and ignorant remarks from her significant other that are directed towards African Americans.[14] She also must undergo a journey in which she ultimately embraces her blackness and pays a heavy cost for it.
The episode uses names to reveal the motives of characters and to employ irony. For example, the main protagonist of the episode, Aaron, shares the name with the biblical Aaron. Aaron means,
“From the Hebrew name (‘Aharon), which is most likely of unknown Egyptian origin. Other theories claim a Hebrew derivation, and suggest meanings such as “high mountain” or “exalted”. In the Old Testament this name is borne by the older brother of Moses. He acted as a spokesman for his brother when they appealed to the pharaoh to release the Israelites from slavery. Aaron’s rod produced miracles and plagues to intimidate the pharaoh. After the departure from Egypt and arrival at Mount Sinai, God installed Aaron as the first high priest of the Israelites and promised that his descendants would form the priesthood.”[15]
Whereas the biblical Aaron was a great leader of his people and an eloquent spokesman, the Aaron of Atlanta denies his people, his heritage, and is unwilling to stand up or speak up for them. In a conversation with his African-American father, Aaron refuses to show any empathy for the black teenager who was murdered by the police during a routine traffic stop.[16] He takes the side of the police and further separates himself from his people. The Aaron of Atlanta can be said to be the antithesis of the Aaron from the Bible. Also, as the exodus from Egypt story is of great significance to the African American people (because it can be seen as an allegory for American slavery), Aaron’s name is ironic and subverts the expectations of him living up to his namesake. Felix’s name also carries substantial irony, as the name “Felix” means “lucky, successful”.[17] Felix is anything but lucky, as he is denied the scholarship by the tribunal and subsequently shot by the police. Even though Robert S. Lee finally decides to give him the scholarship at the end, because “Getting shot by the police is the Blackest thing anybody can do”, Felix’s journey is harrowing and painful. Lastly, the episode shows the significance of the name Robert S. Lee, who the school’s Principal announces as “Robert ‘Shea’ Lee”, with the subtitles in the episode implying that Shea is not his middle name.[18] Rather, it seems to suggest “Shea” as a nickname, as Robert says that he is the heir to an empire of hair care products. The name “Shea” is significant because it connects to the R&B quartet Shai, whose song “If I Ever Fall in Love”[19] is sung by a choir of kids in the hall before Aaron goes to his audition. Shea is a variation of the name Shai and means “gift”.[20] Robert “Shea” Lee literally gives a gift to the graduating class of black students by paying their college tuition and giving them a free ride. Also, the kids singing the song reinforce the message that Lee gives to Aaron about blackness being a social construct. One kid engages in conversation with Aaron,
Aaron: Hey. There’s auditions for this?
Indian Kid: He picking who’s actually Black. Crazy right? Everyone’s giving it a shot.
Aaron: Shouldn’t it be based on, like, your parents?
Indian Kid: I did my research on this guy. He doesn’t believe that ADOS necessitates “Blackness.” He’s really talking about the culture of Black in America. It’s a nuanced discussion.[21]
There are kids in the hallways who do not ethnically identify as black getting their hair braided, performing R&B songs by African American singing groups, and getting “waves” in their hair all in an effort to appear culturally black and get the scholarship.[22] Lastly, Robert “Shea” Lee’s name is ironic because he shares most of his name with “Robert E. Lee (1807-1870), the commander of the Confederate Army during the American Civil War”.[23] Just as many monuments and statues in honor of Robert E. Lee are being destroyed (due to his legacy of white supremacy and fighting a war to keep black people enslaved), Robert “Shea” Lee’s school is nearly burned down and destroyed by people who feel he has discriminated against them based on their “blackness” (or lack thereof).[24]
Lastly, the episode is heavy on foreshadowing the fate and choices of several characters. For instance, when Aaron is discussing Robert S. Lee’s scholarship to his white friends and girlfriend, he briefly plays a video on his phone on social media that features two young black women twerking, but he quickly scrolls past it and acts uninterested. Later, by the episode’s end, Aaron is working in a store and flirting with a young black woman. After she confirms with him that she’ll contact him later, he stares at her butt, saying “That ass stupid.”[25] These two contrasting scenes show the change in Aaron from a “white” kid in America into a “black” man in America. This is further supported by the song “Hangin’ on a String” by the R&B group Loose Ends.[26] The lyrics are sung alternately by a female and male singer. The female vocalist sings, “I’ve waited, oh, so long / For you to come to me / What did I do wrong? / It’s all a mystery to me.” The male singer responds, “Baby, I feel it too. / But what am I supposed to do? / Maybe I’ve just changed.” Indeed, there is a significant change in Aaron, and not only his physical appearance. After Kate broke up with him and he was arrested for trying to burn down the school (which is also foreshadowed when Aaron is playing a videogame earlier and uses a flamethrower in the game to defeat his opponents), Aaron is shown to have more swagger and confidence. He flirts with Kate right after he just finishes flirting with a black woman, and despite Kate witnessing this, she still feels attracted to him. As Aaron acknowledges that he has “never been more attracted” to Kate than in this moment, the message of the episode is hammered home.[27] Blackness and whiteness are social constructs that nonetheless play the most important role in determining where people are socially, economically, and culturally within American society. Since Kate notices his blackness, and Aaron is now aware that he is black and she is white (no longer two white people interested in one another), the attraction between the two is intensified. Their respective place in society only fuels the taboo of the renewed relationship between two similar people who now belong to two different worlds.
Ultimately, Atlanta’s episode, “Rich Wigga, Poor Wigga” shows that race is a social construct that has played a hand in the fate of all Americans. This episode is a coming-of-age story about a kid who has to experience traumatic incidents that allows him to understand what blackness truly is and that he is a black person. Blackness cannot be measured in terms of the amount of ancestry or DNA that an individual has from sub-Saharan Africa because African Americans are a multiracial or mixed ethnic group. Blackness is about the cultural and socioeconomic experiences that a group of people share and has its roots in slavery.
[1] Atlanta. Season 3, Episode 9. Directed, Written, and Produced by Donald Glover.
[2] The Talk, Season 12, Episode 150. 2022. CBS.
[3] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CoFjnWxemc0&list=PLtV_YWkcJzby2sBUsOpkmB_0bCa6nJ1Cw&index=2 Korey Coleman. Double Toasted. Buffalo Shooting and This Stupid Replacement Theory.
[4] Gates, Henry Louis. In Search of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past. Skyhorse Publishing, 2009, 2017. p 21.
[5] Bryc, Katarzyna et al. “The Genetic Ancestry of African Americans, Latinos, and European Americans across the United States.” American Journal of Human Genetics vol 96(1), 2015, pp. 37-53. NCBI, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4289685/
[6] Bryc, Katarzyna et al. “Genome-wide patterns of population structure and admixture in West Africans and African Americans.” PNAS. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A v.107(2); 2010 Jan 12 PMC2818934. NCBI, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2818934/
[7] Ibid.
[8] Morrison, Patt. “Benjamin Jealous: Mr. Rights.” Los Angeles Times, 20 June 2009, 12:00 AM, www.latimes.com/la-oe-morrison20-2009jun20-column.html.
[9] Atlanta. Season 3, Episode 9. Directed, Written, and Produced by Donald Glover.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Passing. Directed and Written by Rebeccca Hall. 2021. Starring Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga.
[13] Atlanta. Season 3, Episode 9. Directed, Written, and Produced by Donald Glover.
[14] Atlanta. Season 3, Episode 9. Directed, Written, and Produced by Donald Glover. Passing. Directed and Written by Rebeccca Hall. 2021. Starring Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga
[15] Aaron. www.behindthename.com Accessed May 20, 2022.
[16] Atlanta. Season 3, Episode 9. Directed, Written, and Produced by Donald Glover.
[17] Felix. www.behindthename.com Accessed May 20, 2022.
[18] Atlanta. Season 3, Episode 9. Directed, Written, and Produced by Donald Glover.
[19] Musixmatch.com. If I Ever Fall In Love. Shai. Songwriters: Carl E. Martin.
[20] Shea. Shay. Shai. Behindthename.com Accessed May 20, 2022.
[21] Atlanta. Season 3, Episode 9. Directed, Written, and Produced by Donald Glover.
[22] Ibid.
[23] Robert. www.behindthename.com Accessed May 20, 2022.
[24] Atlanta. Season 3, Episode 9. Directed, Written, and Produced by Donald Glover.
[25] Atlanta. Season 3, Episode 9. Directed, Written, and Produced by Donald Glover.
[26] Musixmatch.com. Hangin’ on a String. Loose Ends. Songwriters: McIntosh Carl Gladstone, Jane Eugene, et al.
[27] Atlanta. Season 3, Episode 9. Directed, Written, and Produced by Donald Glover.