Promise Boys

Promise Boys explores the lives of three boys—Trey, J.B., and Ramón—whose lives are hindered by the systems that are supposed to support them. As they are implicated in the murder of their principal, with little evidence against them other than their presence near the crime scene, it becomes clear that they are fighting against racism to prove their innocence.

At Promise Prep, a school that is supposed to help the students, the boys are treated militaristically in a prison-like environment. As a result, they are forced into isolation and find no support in the wake of their questioning by the police. Instead, they are suspended and likely expelled from the school as rumors spread among their classmates. The people in charge of the school, like Principal Moore, Dean Hicks, and donor Stanley Ennis, do not support or help the students. Instead, they do the exact opposite, stealing from the school, enabling its carceral policies, and facilitating corruption. Instead of being a supportive place to foster their futures, the school becomes a corrupt institution that mistreats the students because of the inherent belief that they are somehow inferior, incapable, and in need of a prison-like environment to learn.

Like the school, the police department functions as another embodiment of systemic racism, as detectives fixate on convicting one of the boys regardless of the truth.