Dre, directeur de la publicité, s’attend à être promu, très prochainement, vice-président de l’entreprise pour laquelle il travaille. Il est le premier afro-américain à accéder à ce poste. Sa femme, Rainbow, anesthésiste, se réjouit de cette future augmentation. Pendant ce temps, leur fils, Andre Jr, annonce qu’il souhaite se convertir au judaïsme pour avoir droit à une Bar Miztvah comme tous ses amis.

Dre tries to help Andre Jr. expand his social circle. Rainbow tries to inspire Diane.

Jack performs the song “Gold Digger” at a school talent show and when he sings a lyric that includes THE word, it leads to his possible expulsion from school. Dre and Bow work together to get him reinstated, and along the way, examine the evolution of THE word through the generations and just who, if anyone, has the right to use it.

When the kids ask some tough questions in the midst of a highly publicized court case involving alleged police brutality and an African-American teenager, Dre and Bow are conflicted on how best to field them. Dre, along with Pops and Ruby, feel the kids need to know what kind of world they’re living in, while Bow would like to give them a more hopeful view about life. When the verdict is announced, the family handles the news in different ways while watching the community react.

The nation is still reeling after the outcome of the presidential election, and tensions are particularly high at Dre’s work. Much to his frustration, they haven’t been able to get anything done since election night – eight weeks ago. Meanwhile, Junior is dealing with a disenfranchised student body as class president, and when he is asked to deliver Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech at school, Pops teaches him there is more to the speech than Junior thought.

Dre tearfully drops Zoey off to college for her two-day orientation, and she hits it off with fellow incoming freshman Miriam after they ditch the campus tour. They are smitten upon meeting Aaron, who is running the Black Student Union booth at the club fair. When Zoey finds out that Dre never turned in her housing application, she pays a visit to President Schock and Dean Parker to plead for mercy.

An incident at school threatens Junior’s future at his beloved Valley Glen Prep.

Dre reads a crying Devante a bedtime story.