Black Culture

Robin R. Means Coleman essay, "Black Sitcom Portrayals," talks about how black people are portrayed in real life, which is reflected in black television shows. Most people affiliate black people with lower class and no upward mobility, so TV shows the audience these affiliations. Because TV shows do this, this makes white people believe more that black people are only like this. This creates a false sense of identity because television usually will show black people in only one way. Not being racists, television tries to present black culture as making everything in life being a joke. They always try and make black television programs a comedy, or have bad situations that normally would be traumatic in real life. White sitcoms generally have a different comedic edge, and there is no "white culture," in regular TV sitcoms. On the other hand, black sitcoms feature racial stereotypes, like talking gangster, or from eating fried chicken and drinking cool aid. As I mentioned before, I am not trying to be racist, but it really is true that television hyper racializes black culture. In conclusion, while not every sitcom featuring African Americans relies too heavily on the culture, something needs to change to not have blacks portrayed in such a negative light.