During George Floyd protests, ABC reruns 2016 'Black-ish' episode exploring race, police brutality - USA TODAY

In 2016 'Black-ish' dealt with issues of police brutality and racism in one of the most talked about episodes of the ABC comedy.

Groups of people from coast to coast protest police brutality after George Floyd died in Minneapolis police custody.

As the country confronts police brutality and mistreatment of black people in the wake of George Floyd's killing, ABC rebroadcast a groundbreaking 2016 episode of "Black-ish" on Tuesday that confronted those troubling issues. .

"Black-ish" creator Kenya Barris Barris spoke about the timely re-airing of the episode in an Instagram post Tuesday, saying it's "been 1,562 days since we first shared that episode with the world and it breaks my heart on so many levels that this episode feels just as timely as it did then and eerily prescient to what's happening to black people in this country today."?

USA TODAY spoke to Barris and actor Anthony Anderson in 2016 about the decision to present the episode, which features two black parents answering their children's questions about issues that have deep historical and cultural roots, in a comedy series.

ABC's 'Black-ish' examined issues of police brutality and mistreatment of black people in a memorable 2016 episode.

The episode, titled "Hope," explores how parents often struggle to talk to their kids about life's thornier issues – in this case, a fictional news story about an unarmed black teenager selling DVDs who is tased dozens of times by a cop.

The 'Hope' episode of 'Black-ish' was inspired by a real-life conversation creator Kenya Barris had with his family. (Photo: Jason Merritt, Getty Images)