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Low Brow Racial Stereotypes Rule The Black-Ish Trailer: Watch And Read

by on May 16, 2014
 




ABC Black-Ish - www.blallywood.com

Its always a delight to see Tracee Ellis Ross on TV, but there are quite a few things wrong with the trailer for her new show Black-ish. Black-ish is one of the dozens of television shows, including many featuring Black actors and actresses,  that have been picked up for the 2014-2015 season. There have been many recent leaps forward for diversity on TV as far as representation in the African American audience goes. But the trailer released for the new show Black-ish appears to be a leap backward. In the series, Tracee Ellis Ross and Anthony Mackie play husband and wife. They live in an upper class “White” neighborhood with their 4 school aged children. Watching the trailer proved disappointing as it was revealed that low-brow racial stereotypes are driving the humor.

The Black father can’t comprehend why his son is playing field hockey rather than basketball.

A bus full of White tourists are mouths-agape at the site of the “mythical and majestic Black family.” Apparently Black families are a purple cow in this show.

The son Andre wants to be nicknamed Andy, and his father has a cow. (More understandable.) 

At the dinner table, the father shouts out “listen up i’m going to need my family to be Black not Black-ish.” The wife smooths things over by asking, “Why don’t we take a Black break and go get some White yogurt?” A laugh track couldn’t make this joke any worse.

The scene with the father throwing his son an “African rite of passage” ceremony takes the cake. An educated writer would realize that Africa is a continent with hundreds of diverse cultures with equally diverse right of passage ceremonies. Most African Americans do not know what culture in Africa they stem from, and therefore do not take their cultural cues from those traditions.

Watch the trailer for Black-ish and post your thoughts in the comments. Did you agree with my assessment, or did you find the trailer enjoyable overall?

 


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Anya Rahming

Creator of Blallywood, Married to the Internet, Lives in a computer chair...

  • Amicus

    I don’t believe it will complete its first season, it will be canceled early due to low ratings.
    A black or white race centric show makes both black and white middle-class average TV viewers uncomfortable.
    The first Arsenio Hall show was doing quite well, even having almost comparative ratings with the tonight show and letterman until Arsenio made the shift to a more identifiable black show with his guests and black references becoming predominantly black so the audiences stopped identifying with the show, the ratings dropped and it was canceled.

    Please don’t refute me by referencing the “Cosby Show”, because the Cosby Show was not about race, it was about an upper middle-class family who all sectors/ethnic group of America could identify with.

    • AnyaAtBlallywood

      I don’t think the Cosby show was race centric either. Race centric seems to fail unless it is a parody. I agree with you the show will be cancelled fast.