17. Hate Someone Based on the Content of Their Character

Last Shift at The Dot

Hello friends! We come to you with a new episode covering the ONLY time Hazel will ever get an A plot, Season 2's Episode 11, "Don't Believe the Hype". Natasha serves as host for the hour and navigates us through this poorly thought out A plot that takes place on International Day at Degrassi Community School, in which Hazel pretends to be Jamaican to avoid telling her friends and classmates that she is, in fact, Muslim. This episode came out in 2002 so rampant Islamophobia is front and center of the conversation the Degrassi writers are attempting to depict, albeit poorly.

Our B plot is also about hiding something about yourself except it's even more stupid because it's about JT pretending he doesn't know how to sew because it's not masculine or something dumb along those lines. Gender stereotypes of the early aughts, how oh how did we all make it through?

Along the way, we discuss Jesse Williams' "Don't Believe the Hype" denim jacket because Natasha would be remiss to let any of us forget it, speculate on who really destroyed Fareeza's project (completely ignoring that they do figure it out in the episode), and wait....hold up...is Ashley not being insufferable for once?

As our episode title very clearly states, hate some of these kids not because they may be Jamaican, Somalian, Muslim, or a secret seamstress - hate these kids because they're awful. Seriously, you know there's a problem if Emma "Ear Hustler" Nelson and Ashley "Hurt People Hurt People" Kerwin came out of this episode looking the best.

So claim the D (as Liberty says *wink*), fry up some jerk chicken, and enjoy the episode!

xoxo,

Stephan, Morgan, Natasha, Nina, and Perino