In Defense of Blackish
How ABC’s New Show Will Never Be Like The Cosby Show
An affluent, black family sits down for a celebratory dinner, honoring Andre, a father, son, husband and recently promoted Senior Vice President at his marketing firm.
“I don’t know what the hell this is,” quips Pops, the patriarch of the family who is holding a chicken leg.
“It’s fried chicken,” says Rainbow, the eccentric wife to Andre and physician, “baked fried chicken.”
Pops curmudgeonly replies, “Oh, so fried-fried chicken ain’t enough for you, huh?”
With this scene and several similar exchanges between the characters of Blackish, writer Kenya Barris sets the tone for the series premiere, a tone the Cosby Show never came close to reaching. Since the trailer was presented for Blackish, critics, such as Huffington Post contributor Frances Cudjoe Waters, have been steadily drawing comparisons between the new ABC sitcom and the revered black sitcoms of the ‘80s and ‘90s. In an article titled, “’Blackish’: Horrible Parody of Black Family Life,” Waters rips apart the new show apart after viewing what seems to be only 15 minutes of the pilot episode.
Her main problem: Blackish does not show the humanity of its characters outside their racial identifiers.
Slate’s television critic, Willa Paskin, notes in her review of Blackish that the inclusion of a black sitcom on major network TV has been a rare occurrence for decades. And shows that openly talk about race and stereotypes are more rare, even in the age Shondaland where race is portrayed as a secondary characteristic, unassuming and inessential to the character’s storyline.
However, discussing race and culture comically is not a bad thing. In fact, it could be argued that shows like “A Different World” and “The Cosby Show” failed to show the humanity of its characters within their racial identifiers, lacking proof that black culture has influenced their behavior and their successes at all.
It is evident by the title of the show that race is one of the prevailing themes. The main character, Andre, narratively shares his concern that his family, due to the privileges life has afforded them, is losing their culture. Through whimsical situations, and inside jokes only those familiar with the black experience could understand, he comes to the realization that there is no singular way to be black. Despite the wisecracks about the enigmatic “white man” and tasteful use of potentially hurtful stereotypes and generalizations, Blackish gives viewers a peek into the inner musings of a typical American family, unafraid to attribute some of their actions and beliefs to black culture and history.