Excellence, Fear, and the Black American Experience

Content Warning: “Spoilers Ahead”

There is a certain magic, or for my culturally Christian Black Americans, an anointing that is birthed when Black writers write for Black characters. Our stories, properly portrayed on screen, carry a resonance that ripples through the collective consciousness of Black America. For a brief moment, the tapestry of the Black American experience gleams with the energy of those living and dead and is felt in the depths of our souls. Episode three of Lanterns, “OutKast,” written by Vanessa Baden, is yet another example that near perfectly gives form to the question, “Are you afraid?” via the Black American lens.

But I am getting ahead of myself.

Lanterns, HBO Max’s live-action adaptation of DC Comics’ Green Lantern mythology, released in August 2026, follows Hal Jordan and John Stewart. For many viewers, our first introduction to John Stewart came through the animated series Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, penned by the iconic Dwayne McDuffie (Rest In Power), whose interpretation of John helped define the character for a generation.

However, Lanterns gives us a front-row seat to John Stewart’s origins as we meet him before he was chosen by the power ring and, in the episode before, John could even speak. Here, we are given space and time to reconcile how he ascended to become one of the most powerful Green Lanterns his world will ever know. Most importantly, John’s Blackness is also given that front-row seat and is treated with the tender love and care it requires.

“By bringing the Black American experience to the forefront, Vanessa Baden does honor the comic and the very origins of John Stewart’s first incarnation: Black, beautiful, gifted, and profoundly human.”

Instead of serving as a peer, Hal Jordan functions as a hard-ass mentor, attempting to either sabotage or shape John into a Green Lantern. John Stewart retains the confidence of his animated counterpart but is Hellenized through a rigid military lens. As a result, Hal is seen more as a commanding officer.

Now for the annoying, ominous question: “Are you afraid?”

This question was introduced to us in the very first episode of Lanterns. In this series, it is the question the power ring asks any potential Green Lantern candidate. However, what does that look like for a human, specifically a Black American under the thumb of racism? This is the fight that this episode tackles masterfully.

John Stewart Sr. was deemed worthy of the mantle of Green Lantern, and when asked, Stewart Sr. responds, “Yes.”

I know many of you reading this would wonder why, and I have an answer for you!

Stewart Sr. didn’t fear aliens, monsters, or cosmic threats. His fear is rooted in his lived experience and the experience of the generations before him.

Racism isn’t merely an individual prejudice. It is a parasitic system woven into every level of American society; one can even argue on a molecular level. Think about it: a traffic stop gone wrong; fitting the description; hell, just being Black is enough to have you hanged in 2026, and the general public attempts to pass it off as a suicide. In an instant, the trajectory of an entire life can be altered by the idiotic decisions of another person or persons. This is the horror OutKast understands and puts in high definition.

John Stewart Sr.’s fears are not due to a lack of courage. It is John Sr.’s understanding of the reality that he has spent his life navigating. He is a Black man who understands that the threat of dangerous aliens is nothing compared to everyday life as a Black American, where the danger of racism is a shape-shifter, or a hive-minded entity, which commands systems and people to do its bidding.

With Jordan taking the mantle of Green Lantern, and the intervention of a Guardian of the Universe, John Stewart Jr.’s life is altered as he must now prepare for possibility to become destiny.

With this intervention, Vanessa Baden dissects yet another layer of the Black experience: the robotic expectation of excellence.

“Now the question of “Are you afraid?” is not merely the question for a Green Lantern. It is the question Black Americans have been answering for generations”

On October 3, 2013, Scandal opened its third season with an episode titled “It’s Handled.” In one of the most memorable scenes captured in the series, actors Joe Morton and Kerry Washington engage in an acting battle that still echoes throughout television history.

Morton’s voice drops almost to a whisper as he asks his daughter a question:

“You have to be what?”

Then it rises, a purr in the back of his throat.

“You have to be what?”

He asks again with a roar.

Olivia Pope, the powerhouse, the gladiator in a suit who can command presidents and generals, suddenly becomes a child standing before her father.

Barely above a whisper, she answers:

“Twice.”

Morton cuts her off before she can finish.

“Twice as good to get half of what they have.”

For Black Americans, this lesson is so familiar it feels engraved into our bones.

This is the reality John Stewart Jr. inherits. His parents make a choice, one familiar to Black families and one that takes form in a myriad of ways. We understand fear cannot be eliminated, so as a shield we conjure or pray via preparation; i.e., the talks about the police, be it on the street or in a vehicle. The talks about entering stores or establishments, ensuring your hands are visible, and so on.

For John, it was decided to push this to an extreme, removing the essence of a child and leaving a soldier who can overcome and adapt to whatever obstacle has been thrown his way. To control and almost eliminate emotions within interactions to ensure attitude, or even the perception of one, can’t hold him back.

This is also reaffirmed in the very first episode. Hal Jordan literally nearly commits attempted murder, John explodes on a phone call with his father, and near immediately he is told to bottle it up.

Excellence is the expectation.

Innocence transforms into responsibility.

Now the question of “Are you afraid?” is not merely the question for a Green Lantern. It is the question Black Americans have been answering for generations, fear being this fingerprint of experience, while courage, preparation, and adaptability are the gloves.

By bringing the Black American experience to the forefront, Vanessa Baden does honor the comic and the very origins of John Stewart’s first incarnation: Black, beautiful, gifted, and profoundly human.