Thursday, August 03, 2006

We loved the Cosby Show. . . "because it showed that African-American families can be just as white-bread as every other TV family. "



My brother sent me this article, Best TV Shows of the '80s. Read the blurb about the Cosby Show, and tell me what you think.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL. Are you surprised, RB?! The Cosby Show was the sucess that it was because middle America found them digestable ... AND because cable was still in its relative infancy, so the average family didn't have much more to look at. Its the same reason why Alicia Keys won the Best New Artist Grammy over India Arie .... oh, I think we already had this discussion, but with Beyonce some weeks back.

Anonymous said...

And before you all miss my argument, YES, I think Alicia Keys is talented. I have both of her CDs and even waited in line (TOO long) to see her live. It was just to support my argument that she exhibits many of the traits mainstream society finds digestable.

Question: Does that "we want you to resemble us as much as possible" requirement apply to men too? In less mainstream genre's?

Sean Paul, who is white, black and Chinese, is the most commercially successful and award-winning dancehall musicians ever (he is also probably the lightest Jamaican I've ever seen).

Bob Marley - probably the most celebrated reggae musician ever - is also biracial. His most commerically-successful son, Damien, is actually more white than black.

Your thoughts ....

Dr. Ronda Taylor Bullock said...

I'm not surprised that the Cosby Show was so successful because "middle America found them digestable". I thought the article was saying something different. (Here comes the teacher in me) Can you go back and reread the "Why We Loved It" line and tell me if you see something else?

Anonymous said...

Because dude literally said, we liked them because they could be as white as everybody else?

Dr. Ronda Taylor Bullock said...

"Does that 'we want you to resemble us as much as possible' requirement apply to men too? In less mainstream genre's?" ~Gene

I don't think that it applies to males. I think males have more freedom when it comes to a mainstream image--in some instances. For example, we see more successful brown to darker skin males than we do brown to darker skin females in the main stream society. Light skin and dark skin men go in and out of style (not that this is ok) but brown women have never been "in style".

Oh yeah, I completely understand what you were saying with the India Arie/Alicia Keys comparison.

Dr. Ronda Taylor Bullock said...

He is also saying that success isn't for Black people. Only white people have financially successful families and you are acting white if you are Black and you have a wealthy family.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, when he said white, he meant stable, educated, well-off. Right.

As people of color become more overt in embracing their ethnicity, whites are going to become bolder in expressing theirs. Watch.

Carmen agrees with you on the light-skinned male thing. But do you think the whole "dark-skinned" male might be on some whole mythical, fascination, mockery type thing? Remember "Mandingo" from Dr. Regester's class?

Dr. Ronda Taylor Bullock said...

Good ol AFAM 76. I do remember. You may be right. I miss Regester.

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