In America, we encourage individuality and uniqueness. But what happens when you feel like those traits are isolating you from your peers? Do you lose them and assimilate into your community, or do you continue to celebrate what makes you different? These are the main questions that the pilot of ABC’s new comedy “Black-ish” addressed in its debut episode.
“Black-ish” is a comedy centered on what it means to achieve the so-called American dream while preserving a sense of your own cultural identity. Anthony Anderson’s character, Andre Johnson, grew up in a low-income neighborhood in Los Angeles, where he worked to become a senior vice president at a reputable advertising firm. The pilot centered on Andre reconciling his and his family’s racial identity and culture with their predominantly white, upper middle-class, and suburban surroundings.
In the show’s opening scene Andre is pictured imagining an “Ultimate Hollywood Tours” van full of tourists, a popular sight in Beverly Hills where the show is likely set, driving by his home as he stands outside with his family. The imaginary white tour guide involved in the dream narrates the Johnsons as “the mythical and majestic black family out of their natural habitat, yet still thriving.” The scene hits at the central theme of the show: feeling like an outsider within your own community and still trying to preserve your cultural identities.
“How do you feel ‘normalized’ in a space where you are still seen as the ‘other’? You don’t want to be seen as such, but that doesn’t mean you don’t enjoy being the ‘other,’ ” Lisa Pecot-Hebert, assistant professor and director of undergraduate journalism, said.
Feeling like an outsider is a trope that’s been used since the early stages of storytelling. In “Black-ish”, the trope is related to being black in a predominantly white neighborhood. However, feeling like an outsider also applied to many other races and types of identities. Shows, like “Black-ish,” about feeling like an outsider continue to be created because they are so relatable. Most everyone can understand, on some level, what it feels like to be separated and that is what the show and Andre Johnson’s experiences focus on.
Andre is repeatedly othered at work. In the pilot, he is being promoted to senior vice president, a title no black employee has had before. However, he is upset when he finds out that he is senior vice president of the urban division, or as he puts it, “black stuff.” In response, he created an ironic advertisement for Los Angeles tourism featuring violence and poverty, stereotypical views of “urban” areas of Los Angeles, a jab that nearly costs him his job. He is also made to feel like an outsider to his co-worker Josh, who calls him “Dre,” despite the fact that Andre has repeatedly told him not to, disrespecting Andre in the process as he justified his actions solely based on the fact that Andre was black.
Meanwhile, he fears his children might lose their sense of cultural identity after assimilating into their predominantly white friend groups.
Life’s all about trumping your parents and doing better. But better generally means assimilating,” Pecot-Hebert said. “That’s not a bad thing, but it can be taken as a bad thing if you completely lose who you are in the process, which is the pull that Anthony Anderson’s character is having.”
These dilemmas fuel the intra-family conflict featured in the pilot, with Anderson’s character trying to instill in his children both values and cultural identity. He is disappointed with his son’s desire to play field hockey as opposed to basketball and his children not being aware that Barack Obama is the first Black president.
His son, also named Andre, goes by Andy at school and wants a Bar Mitzvah like his friends. Andre decides instead to conduct an “African rights of passage ceremony” for his son, an experience that he hoped would enrich his son’s understanding of what it means to be Black.
Ultimately he came to realize that it is not because his son is denying his heritage, but instead simply trying to find his own identity and sense of self. As a result, Anderson’s character throws his son a “Hip Hop Bro Mitzvah,” a cultural compromise. In addition, he realized that he, like his son, must make the best of his opportunities and embrace his new job as Senior Vice President of the Urban Division. These resolutions suggest that the show will ultimately be about Anthony Anderson’s character discovering that there is not a singular way of being black.
The show discussed racial issues with a bluntness that was normally uncommon to primetime network television, but does not sacrifice any humor, avoiding cheap jokes and assuming an intelligent audience. In addition, the show is ultimately focused on a father navigating parenthood with his wife, while also trying to teach his children the values he learned in his own youth, a concept relatable to viewers of all races.
“The funny thing was, I didn’t feel urban,” he said. “I just felt like a dad who would do anything he could for his family and isn’t that the American dream?”
