Why Arrow’s #Blacklivesmatter Episode Will Work

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3) Street-Level Justice:

• The Arrow show revolves around men and women who take the law in their own hands, vigilantism at its finest. So there is a level of distrust of the police and this has been a consistent theme on the show. Episodes have featured several levels of corruption in the police force and even city hall; so it fits with the theme of the show to address mysterious deaths at the hands of the police. Arrow is a show with gritty, realistic, and street-level story lines--stories that could conceivably happen in real life in any major city.

2) Ethnic Characters:

• The show has several cast members that will likely be interested in telling this story. The show is one of the most ethnically diverse shows on television in its genre. Diggle/Spartan is an African-American character that has been featured on the show since the beginning and could give this episode a fantastic perspective. The character has become a family man recently and has become the heart and soul of the show. His character has been used in the past to highlight real world issues like war combat and PTSD.

1) Oliver Queen:

• The show has done an awesome job over the years poking fun at Oliver’s past and his abuse of his “privilege”. Producers can take this one step forward and use the character’s point of view to highlight society’s inconsistencies. The character in the comics was a vigilante by night and by day an activist for the little guy, for the oppressed. So it's in Queen’s DNA to fight any kind of oppression, racial or otherwise. So a #blacklivesmatter story line aligns well with this character's natural motivations.