Guilty

written by Tumelo Tladi

The anthology series as whole puts a magnifying glass on Brooklyn with stories coming out of the borough. I saw an opportunity to delve deeper into both the challenges and obstacles synonymous with immigration and being black in the United States, as well as a strained father-son relationship.

With Guilty I also wanted to interrogate and examine the justice system and wrongful convictions of black men, through Micah - an artist and a South African immigrant living and working in the U.S. - who’s wrongfully accused of a crime he didn’t commit. His belief in what is just and true, compels him to fight to prove his innocence. Through his story, and this scene in particular, I wanted to highlight the ways in which he and his father Zweli, an anti-apartheid revolutionary, are of different generations; different perceptions about racism, injustice and who a black man should and shouldn’t trust. I wanted to show the power struggle between the two; the tensions as they rise when father and son don’t see eye to eye.

— Tumelo Tladi

Tumelo, a South African writer with paternal roots in Malawi, is a former creative services specialist who joined the TV Writers Studio when she made her transition to film and television. After graduating with a B.Journ. from Rhodes University, she spent the early years of her career working in print, broadcast and digital media and communications in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa, bagging a few corporate and institutional advancement awards along the way. Tumelo’s writing explores, among other themes, issues around social inequality, racism and racial prejudice, and the impact on black lives, families and women.

One of Tumelo’s favorite TV series is Grey’s Anatomy, because if 16 seasons later she can still bawl her eyes out, there must be something spectacular about it.