On May 24, 2020 - the day before the world witnessed the torture and murder of George Floyd - I saw the eighth and final episode of the prescient mini-series, Little Fires Everywhere. In this Hulu series, based on the best-selling 2017 book of the same name by American writer and novelist Celeste Ng, fires are the metaphor for both family disaster and dangerous, unaddressed festering distrust between the races.  

 

     On May 30, in furious protest to Floyd’s brutal murder, I watched from my apartment window as parts of my city, Philadelphia, erupted in flames. As smaller flames followed, set on the numbered street leading to my home, scenes from the mini-series flashed through my mind. 

 

     Little Fires Everywhere provides a perfect opportunity for discussion and introspection in schools of social work and social work settings. It shines a strong light on unintended, unrealized, unrecognized community hypocrisy and the necessary work that faces America in addressing racist attitudes and dismantling racist institutions. It offers more examples of microaggressions than I could possibly count. Discussion can extend to myriad relational specifics involving gender issues; marriage; parenting; the inability to conceive a child; intercultural and interracial adoption; and the cost of lost dreams, lost opportunities, and lost loves.

 

     Both book and series take place in the 1990s in Shaker Heights, Ohio, an area that took pride in itself as one of the first suburban communities to integrate. Yet, the drama portrays a frightening gap in race relations and social classes, and a White privileged population oblivious to its condescension, with a fierce determination to convince the outside world (and themselves!) of their progressive, inclusive views. Celeste Ng, whose parents moved to this country from Hong Kong in the late 1960s, was born in Pittsburgh but knew this area and timeframe well. During the period portrayed, when she was 10 years old, she and her family relocated to Shaker Heights.