I’ve been trying to figure out why “Trigger Warning with Killer Mike,” the Netflix reality show starring the eponymous rapper, feels more “real” than most reality shows. I think it’s because, over six episodes, he forces Americans (and himself) to try to live up to their words.
For example, in the introduction to the series, Killer Mike notes that, due to his political dabbling (he rallied for Bernie Sanders in 2016), he can be controversial. He plays a clip of himself on Bill Maher’s political talk show in which he says: “If you’re African-American, tyranny is happening now. If a soldier or a cop can own a version of an AR-15, I’m not comfortable in a country where I’m being asked to disarm and they are not.”
A lot of conservatives loved this line at the time because it reinforces a longstanding argument for gun rights. But I’m more impressed by the challenge it poses to viewers and voters, which asks them if their behavior is consistent with how they describe their experience in America. Do you actually “live your truth,” or is your political sloganeering just performative hot air?
In the first episode, Killer Mike follows this train of thought. He expresses nostalgia for when black commerce meant the money would stay in the black community and wonders what it would take to “live black,” only patronizing black-owned businesses, for three days while traveling from Atlanta to a show in Athens, Ga. Vikram Gandhi, the show’s director, tells Mike: “Basically, you need food, shelter, transportation, clothes, so I don’t know if it’s possible, to be honest.”
That goes for marijuana, too, “unless you have a straight Jamaican connection.”
It sounds ridiculous, but Killer Mike does it, ending up exhausted and starving. I admired him putting his money where his mouth was. I thought of the anti-Israel boycotters who harangue artists into not playing concerts in Tel Aviv but will happily use the latest Israeli tech and medicine.
In a later episode, he challenges Americans’ insistence that they want to break down barriers by assembling a group of musically minded folks of various ethnic and racial backgrounds to put together a song, each writing a verse. Needless to say, they have a hard time accepting the neo-Confederate white nationalist’s contribution. In another episode, he and the group secede to form their own country to see for themselves what it would mean to follow through on a threat we often hear from angry partisans.
Americans have a tendency to slip into hyperbole when discussing politics. Killer Mike’s message is that they should say what they mean and mean what they say.
