Kerry Washington may be best known for her portrayal of Olivia Pope in Scandal, but her latest project, Netflix’s American Son , focuses on a major problem in society that not even Washington D.C.’s best fixer could change: racial injustice. In American Son , Washington plays Kendra Ellis-Connor , who reunites with her estranged husband (Steven Pasquale) in a Miami, Florida police station where they try to piece together where their missing teenage son could be. The more time goes on, the more scared they become, and the police do very little to offset their worry. The premise sounds like every parent’s worst nightmare, but is American Son based on a true story? Not quite, but the project explores some important (and unfortunate) truths about the world.