Dy-No-Mite! Stereotypical Images of African Americans on Television Sitcoms

Comparatively, we see lots of today's shows feature a lead black actor/actress or of different minority ethnicity. If you go back a few decades there hardly was a show that had minority actor/actress that held a consistent role in the show. Scandal, is an example of a tv show that has a black actress as the main character and has many aspects involving racial relations that would not been acceptable thirty years ago. One such case being an affair between Olivia Pope, a black woman who was formerly a lawyer, and the president of the United States during the pilot episode Sweet Baby. Interracial relationships were virtually nonexistent during the 1970s and therefore unseen in any entertainment. Nowadays it is still uncommon but accepted by the majority of the community.

The television show Black-ish has caused many controversial discussion and opinions. The sitcom features three generations of an African American family, the Johnsons, which includes a successful executive Andre; his wife Rainbow, who is a doctor; their four kids: Andre Jr., Zoey, Jack, Diane, and Andre’s parents Pops and Ruby living in a predominantly white suburban neighborhood in Los Angeles. The theme centers around how Andre came from a poor black neighborhood and his kids don’t seem to realize their culture. With this being the basis of the show, it has caused an uproar, with just its name alone being said to perpetrate racial stereotypes, leaving some with feelings that the show should be canceled (Peyser). The sitcom has even received tweets from Presidential candidate Donald Trump about being racist. This is as far from the truth as possible. Black-ish is not only non-racist it, but it is also a great show, providing laughs, life lessons, and diversity. Therefore, Black-ish is a good family sitcom and meets several aspects to be judged as one.

These shows include: “Modern Family”, “Meet the Browns” and “Glee”. With all the shows being of different networks, I feel like these shows will give me a wide representation of how race is being represented on sitcoms in the 21st century and whether or not media content reflects the realities of the social world.

Thoughts of blacks lacking intelligence lasted through the years because blacks were still being casted in roles like those of "Amos 'n' Andy." Shipler mentions that "Family Matters", a more recent show, presents blacks once again as mentally inferior (301). Steve Eurkle one of the main characters repeatedly gets into bad situations cause by his stupidity. The in-studio audience laughs as he exclaims his punch line, "Did I do that?!” Comedy shows are light-hearted and good-natured, but the audience must remember that one Black character's incompetency is not typical of all Black people. The stereotypes soon transcend television and enter reality. A Country of Strangers mentions a survey that was conducted. The National Opinion Research Center surveyed about 1,200 Americas in 1990. The questions asked about intellect. The results showed that "53.2 percent rates [blacks] as less intelligent and 40.5 percent saw [blacks] as equally intelligent [as whites]"(Shipler 278). The results show that the American public buys into the stereotypes that the media display. What is even sadder is the fact that the survey in Shipler's book also found that Blacks were viewing themselves as less intelligent than Whites. Approximately one-third of the Blacks surveyed believed their intelligence to be lower than Whites

Paying select attention to signs and images produced and presented by television media, this essay will analyze the portrayal of Black culture on American television and how it has been constructed based on the system of representation controlled and influenced by White ideologies of the “Other”. The 1980’s sitcom “The Cosby Show” will be referenced in representing the evolution of Black representation and the effect it had on audience’s interpretation of race and class structure.

As Reality TV becomes more prominent it seems as though negative stereotypes overtly saturate this genre of entertainment. The popularity of reality TV shows subliminally support the preconceived or self-fulfilling prophesy consumers may have towards a certain person or group of people. Reality TV has had an extensive run demeaning African Americans while perpetuating stereotypes. More specifically today, black men are portrayed as stereotypical Brute individuals on the reality TV show Love and Hip Hop Atlanta. The Brute stereotype dates back to the 1870’s and continues today, showing black men as savages, violent, insensitive and destructive.

While present television promotes cultural diversity as an impacting and influential means of communication, it didn’t always used to be this way. During the late 1940’s the United States was full of negative outlooks toward the underclass society that at the time was occupied by people of African American descent. At this time there was discrimination and segregation between the whites and the colored people. Whites were receiving more privileges than the people of color. With the United States having an all white medium it left a negative image on how society is viewed. However, after the course of 40 years slowly but surely the minority groups were able to meld and find their way into television. While

Many times in television shows or even movies there are many stereotypes that we look over. The reason we look over them is because we don’t realize the discrimination because we think it is the norm. Stereotypes are a real thing and the times are changing. With the times that are changing television needs to change with those times.

Television is not only pure entertainment, as medium, but also more like a way to deliver a different kind of massages to the audience. In the earliest days of television, Black people are not seem to be accepted to be on the television, even they have the role, they often portrayals of pleasing the audience by doing comedies. In Marlon Riggs’ Color Adjustment, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. state that the black urban sitcoms of the 1970s represented the greatest potential for representing Black life in television’s history and also the greatest failure; and he gives an example like Good Time. The show represents the black communities across the country, and their situation in realities, also it talks about how they deal with the issues of racism

Second excuse is the plethora of networks today. Back in the old days there were only three broadly programmed networks. That all changed in the late 80’s with the launch of Fox, a network that found early success targeting minorities with shows like “In Living Color” and “Martin”. WB and UPN followed in ’95, allowing NBC, CBS, and ABC to edge away from the genre.

Blacks faced social, economical, physical and political disadvantages. Even cartoons in the 50’s continued to show blacks characters that were depicted as very dark brown, wooly black hair, large red lips, so large there were disproportionate with the rest of the face, the animated Colored character appeared dim witted and usually took the brunt of the joke. The image of African-Americans has been greatly depreciated by the roles they play on television sitcoms. On these shows African-Americans are depicted as being maids, clowns, and buffoons. This misrepresentation of African-Americans has become common place through out the media. Black people faced many injustices in America. One of the most controversial sitcoms was the Amos ‘n Andy Show. This sitcom included two black comedic men, this show is the start of the creation of the African-American stereotypes that most people have grown accustom to today. Initially, the Amos ‘n Andy Show began as a radio show with two white men portraying two black men. When the show transferred to television, it consisted of two black men portraying the two black comedic dummies. They were still performing the slapstick comedy as made popular on the radio show, but to be able to see them visually had a greater effect. The roles that the two black men played are the typical roles that blacks play in

Bonilla-Silva’s article explains the concept of Whiteness and its dominating effects on the media. He notes various TV shows and movies that features Whites in main roles while people of colour are generally cast in stereotypical roles. I will primarily refer to his concept of Whiteness and apply it to a TV show. Specifically, I will compare his analysis of various movies and TV shows to Fresh Off the Boat.

The reason that I found this so interesting was the difference in black representation I see today. The shows like The Proud Family, Everybody Hates Chris, The Cosby Show and others that even a white person born in 1996 remembers watching in the early 2000s, seem to be the high point of African American representation that we might be on our way to meeting again but haven’t yet.. Thinking on the major TV channels today, finding black characters in programs is a bit easier and they tend to be more varied in the role they play but the sheer amount of all black or mostly black TV programs seems to be at a smaller scale compared to the

Stereotypes of African American women flourish in programmes such as The Real Housewives of Atlanta, which includes a primarily African American, female cast and is the most successful show in Bravo TV’s history. With shows such as Basketball Wives, Love & Hip Hop alongside Real Housewives of Atlanta accumulating massive followings, undesirable

characters on primetime television’s big three networks (ABC, NBC, and CBS)? There are primetime shows aimed primarily at colored people like The Jamie Foxx Show, The Wayans Brothers, and The Hughleys featured on main networks like the Warner Brother’s Network and United Paramount Network. But the problem with these shows are that they are comedic/funny and keep in the originality of leading characters in unintelligent and jokey black actors ( Hamer 23). There is one recent show on primetime TV pointed at African American’s called ‘My Wife and Kids’, acted out Damon Wayans, but this show’s main focus is to make the viewers laugh. The views would never take them serious. Black people have received some repeatedly dramatic, roles on different