Too Stereotypical...

In Robin Coleman’s Black Sitcom Portrayals, Coleman observes the way African American’s are portrayed in television shows. Throughout his article, he explains how blacks in TV shows are more often described in a negative and lower working class light than wealthy, which is often associated in being “white.” The typical stereotypes of blacks and white on TV seem to differ greatly. There is a lot of variety between whites and blacks – mostly depending on how rich they are and what kind of neighborhoods they live in. Also, often times in black TV shows, at least one of the kids is a troublemaker.

This article reminded me of a separate article I came across about a month ago, which had to do with the lightening of Gabourey Sidibe’s skin color for the cover of Elle. They were basically trying to appeal more to a “white” or “rich” audience instead of showing her true beauty.

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More Power to Bill

The Cosby show set the representational and marketing standards that continue to determine what types of African American shows get produced, and where those shows are sold. I find it interesting that the Cosby show also started it all for the international networks. This show has taken the non-stereotypical idea of the African American family and has showed America and other places that African American people can act in all different ways. They aren’t the stereotypical view such as being “ghetto” or a low income family. I feel that the Cosby show has also opened doors for African American movie productions. I agree with what la monarca wrote from “The White Gaze” which was the idea of pride in a positive image of distinctly African American society were both prominent in the Coleman and Havens pieces. The Cosby show was a reason for African Americans to finally show pride in their culture without it being shown in a negative light.

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.

The "White Gaze"

I found it interesting that in both the Coleman and Havens pieces, the idea of pride in a positive image of distinctly African American society were prominent.

In the Coleman reading, it was women in particular who praised the depiction of strong, black women in black sitcoms. In the Havens essay, it was a more general pride in the way that The Cosby Show portrayed the modern African American family to all of the US and the world. It draws attention to the fact that television helps to formulate people's perceptions of others and that a positive image translates to a positive viewpoint.

The Havens piece also eluded to the idea of a racial lens through which society sees television and media in general. It seemed to me like the idea of the "male gaze" could be translated to race as the "white gaze." I did some research

and it turns out that the "white gaze" is a legitimate term in cultural studies. The articles I found all credited the whitewashing of American history with this "white gaze," and I can definitely see its effects in the comments from the two articles.

In Western art the influences of the "white gaze" are o

bvious. Caucasians are shown as the subjects of paintings and all others are merely background or a figure of interest only because of their "exotic" nature.

Black Sitcom Portrayals …I can't think of anything clever this time

Robert Coleman's article was about the inferiority assigned to the race, in this case Blacks on TV, that is linked to their lack of upward mobility. The fact that this article has to do with TV shows, reminded me of my textual analysis of Zoe Kravitz and her copy. The first section Class Depictions, it talks about the TV show "The Jeffersons" which made the Black race look successful. However, some shows don't show how economically achieved and stable blacks really are. People are still under the assumption that Black people like to stay true to their underclass roots.
Furthermore, in the Familial Relationships section, Robert has a conversation with Gale, who argues that there is the notion that the white community thinks that Black men are treated less than Black women. But when they are accepted their self-esteem can be restored. The negative and stereotypical part of the section states that, Black children are saved from their dysfunctional families by whites. The "White Savior," or in the Black intervener situation still sends out the same message of Black men are mostly failures.
There is also Hollywood's preference of casting lighter-skinned African American's for certain roles. This is where I could relate my textual analysis of Zoe Kravitz. Her quote in the ad is making the statement that the film industry can pick and choose what kind of person they want to play a certain role. Usually they cast African American's for only Black played roles. In the image, the hard-light on her makes her look lighter skinned. To me, relates back to the statement of Hollywood accepting lighter skinned Blacks because that is what the industry wants according to this article.
The African American Cultural/Communities section it touches on certain cultural aspects of the black community and the problems with watching the TV shows. One that stood out to me is the part when he talks about churches and how black churches are seen to be loud and obnoxious with people dancing and jumping around praising the Lord. Whereas, Catholic and Presbyterian churches would never been seen to be like, they would be more serious and religious. It's interesting to note that this girl Jennifer talks about how she has a problem watching African American sitcoms because they deal with the social and racist issues. She says she has to deal with it in real life so she can't stand to watch it because it gets her frustrated. To her there is no point in watching a show that is a fictional situation with no solution.
are women who can identify themselves when they watch sitcoms, which are talked about in the Identity and Self-Image section. Rose comments how shows like, "The Cosby Show," resemble strong African-American family values that she also has too. Moreover, Valerie, Lonette, and Jasmine see themselves ha strong African women and can relat the the independent image of Black women on TV as well. They like how Black women on TV don't put up with silly things and are in control of the household and their children. Lonette, in particular can relate to this very well. The picture is from the movie "Raisin In The Sun," when Mama is being the disciplinarian to her son Walter because he is foolishly obsessing over money to spend on opening a liquor store that she doesn't approve of.

What are Black sitcoms really like?

Black Sitcom Portrayals written by Robin Coleman, examines the way African American’s are depicted in TV shows anything from That’s My Mama, The Jeffersons to The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Coleman’s essay is very strong because he backs up his points via opinions from African American’s about their own personal feelings towards these TV Shows (J.C. Lonette, and Freddie). Blacks in TV shows are more often portrayed in a negative light and linked to a lower working class because wealth is often depicted with “whiteness.” Henry Louis Gates argues that, “television has failed to represent the full economic spectrum of African Americans. Yet they also seem to believe that all economically ascended Blacks have their immediate roots in the underclass and/or ghetto…” (81). Stereotypes of blacks and whites seem to affect TV shows a lot, White’s are not always super rich and unappreciative of money as shown in 90210 or Gossip Girl and African American’s do not always live in poor neighborhoods full of crime and gangs as shown in Lincoln Heights. J.C argues how even sometimes in TV shows like The Fresh Prince of Bel Air when the good kid is black and he possesses good values and behaviors he is picked on for that. In many predominately black TV shows the kids are either trouble makers or come from a troubled household, or else have been “rescued”/cleaned up and adopted by a white family. Below is a video of the teen TV show 90210, 90210 consists predominately of extremely rich white teenagers who go to high school and constantly throw huge parties, drive ridiculously expensive cars, and live in million dollar homes in Beverly Hills, California. The only kid in the TV show who is African American happens to also be the only one who is adopted in the show by a wealthy white family. Even though he talks with a “slang” he dresses like many would say a “white boy.”

Another part of this article I found really interesting that I personally can relate a lot to through a friend of mine is the argument Coleman and his participants explain, “Hollywood’s preference for lighter-skinned African Americans....the participants saw television communicating that African Americans with White features are better (84). I find this to be really interesting and obvious in many TV shows and even in magazines. Models used are often very light skinned African Americans (who almost look ethnically ambiguous) it is not often that you see a really dark-skinned African American used. As the participants explain they feel this brings back their feelings of segregation they used to experience and still sometimes do presently. The lighter skinned African American’s are used for more beauty and can show more richness. Automatically I connected this to my best friend Meghna who is Indian and from Gujarat, India (North India). She has always told me, “I hate my skin getting dark.” Through curiosity five years ago I asked why? I really wanted to know. As she explained to me, the darker you are the less beautiful it is seen in her Indian culture, lighter is beauty and richness, it sort of shows their class in society. They would say, “The lighter, the better, and the more beautiful.” I found that to be really interesting. I never would have connected the lighter skin to beauty or class, but when Meghna looks at pictures of her and all her friends on Facebook she proudly likes to see she is the “white-est” Indian in the picture.

The last point I would like to make regarding this essay is Coleman’s participant, Billie’s argument about the misrepresentation of the Black church. Whenever I see the representation of the Black church in movies it is true that I see it as this happy, choir singing, dancing place, as Billie states, “[The Black church is seen] only in a derogatory way. Just jumpin’ around, dancing’, Black people’s roots are in the church, but they never see us as Catholics or Presbyterians. Just [as] rockin’ and dancin’ and jumpin’ up and down.” (85). Take a look at the end of the movie Big Mamma’s House, unfortunately I agree with Billie that the church is not really represented properly it is not seen as a place engaged in worship, but rather a place to “jump around.”

90210


Big Mamma's House

black sitcoms

Robin R. Means's article "Black Sitcom Portrayals" gives a very good insight on the complexities and themes of some sitcoms that predominately feature African Americans throughout their creation. He uses Class Depictions (79), African American Culture/Communities (84), and Identity and Self-Image (86) as sub themes in his topic that discuss the issues. Means goes into detail a lot about class and how class is portrayed amongst African Americans in sitcoms. For example most feature them living in less than perfect conditions that we expect the "perfect" American home to be, like with a white picket fence, happy parents, two kids, and a dog. Some shows feature characters living as a single parent, or living poor. While "The Cosby Show" features a family living middle to upper class (88).

I have a lot of points to make about this article but its hard to say without coming across like a complete racist, but, I find it interesting that it is okay for the sitcoms that feature african amercians to almost be allowed to ridicule white people as part of the jokes. In turn, it is not okay for a live action sitcom, featuring predominately whites, to be able to make the same sort of jokes. Obviously both occur vice versa, but I believe it occurs more in black sitcoms. Jokes like: "look at that white boy, or cracker [ do something stupid]" I have heard before in some of these black sitcoms. If the tables were turned, and a group of white people said something regarding the N word, I do not believe it would be allowed to broadcast. Race is a very touchy thing on television and it is hard to handle it right, but the point I am trying to make is that blacks get more leeway when it comes to making jokes regarding whites or any other race for that matter, including their own race. Obviously there is a lot of historical and cultural history that makes all of that possible.

Overall I think that the article was a very fascinating read and how Means pulled it off was very well done without coming across too harsh.