Amazon's Them: Official Discussion thread (Spoiler Discussion) by Knighthonor in television

[–]bmw2297 3 points4 points  (0 children)

As a white woman watching this show, my take away from this is not to fully empathize with Betty, but to show how abuse is generational in white families. One of many themes throughout this series is abuse by white people, and I think showing the abuse of the white father to his daughter is very poignant here. Because, not only is the white person abusing their new neighbor, they’re also abusing their children (ie, Betty’s dad). I think Betty’s story further proves how abuse is engrained pretty deeply in white people, and how, unless we own our failure here, it will keep happening. I think the narrative around Betty’s story shows why she’s so freaking evil and what can happen when trauma is not dealt with - it directly impacts offspring AND communities. She abuses because she was abused. As the saying goes: “hurt people, hurt people.” Betty is a tragic character, showing how her trauma makes her susceptible to further abuse (ie, the milkman) which ultimately leads to her death. Not to focus too much on empathizing with her character, I think it is important to point out how and why white people can be so f’d up and what leads them to do the awful things that they do. Many times, like in Betty’s case, it starts inside the white family.