Kenya Barris (1974- ), a US television writer and producer, is best known as the creator of the show “Black-ish” (2014- ), a thinly autobiographical sitcom about a Black family in Los Angeles. He is a childhood friend of Tyra Banks, with whom he created “America’s Next Top Model” (2003-2015). He also wrote the new “Barbershop” film.
In 2015 Barris signed a three-year contract with ABC to continue “Black-ish” and come up with yet other shows. ABC is home to another rising Black star, Shonda Rhimes, best known for giving us “Scandal” (2012- ).
“Black-ish”, like “The Cosby Show” (1984-1992), features an upper-middle-class Black family. But unlike “Cosby”, it is not “accidentally” Black. The show is race conscious, so things like police brutality and the N-word come up.
Barris says he wants to be both funny and “honest”, yet he has to colour within the lines set by ABC. For example, they asked him not to do a show based on the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. They did not want any police jokes in the wake of Ferguson. By February 2016, though, it was becoming strange for the show not to talk about police brutality. But even then it became a “very special episode”. Norman Lear would be turning in his grave – if he were dead!
And, like “Cosby”, Barris wants to be inspirational to Black people. That also limits him. So, as thinly autobiographical as it is, the marriage on the show does not have the rough weather of his own marriage.
At the same time he also wants non-Blacks to watch and laugh – and think about how they view Black people.
His audience is in fact mostly non-Black. Only somewhat more Black people watch his show than watch “Modern Family”, the upper-middle-class White family sitcom that comes on right before it. “Empire”, which Barris does not think is a good show, has way more Black viewers.
From Inglewood to Hollywood: Barris grew up in Inglewood, a Black and Latino part of Los Angeles. His father lost a lung from working at General Motors. The court settlement from that tragedy allowed his family to move to a middle-class neighbourhood and send him to private school. It changed his life.
The example of Spike Lee showed him that Black people could and should tell their own stories. The Jigaboo and Wannabe scene in “School Daze” (1988) blew his mind. So, after studying film at Clark Atlanta, a Black university, and marrying Rainbow, his high school sweetheart, he worked his way up from the bottom of Hollywood writerdom.
What we know as “Black-ish” is his 19th attempt, four of which got produced, and only one, “Black-ish”, made it on television (with the help of Larry Wilmore).
Being Blackish: Growing up he thought he knew what it meant to be Black, but his children’s Blackness is different than his own. They are more culturally White, while their non-Black friends are culturally Black to a degree unthinkable in the 1980s. Neither are Black in the way he understands it – instead they are both Blackish.
– Abagond, 2016.
Sources: Mainly the New Yorker (2016).
See also:
- Tyra Banks
- race conscious
- Bill Cosby
- Empire
- The arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr
- Ferguson
- Fresh Off the Boat – a show much like “Black-ish”
- Issa Rae
- The TV mirror fallacy
- Zora Neale Hurston: What White Publishers Won’t Print – applies to television too
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“Being Blackish: Growing up he thought he knew what it meant to be Black, but his children’s Blackness is different than his own.”
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Of course it is!
His children are upper middle class Blacks. He grew up poor. Two different experiences. Guess which socioeconomic class represents the plethora of Black people (with high unemployment rates and excessively high rates of criminal convictions)?
Hence the name, Blackish. FWIW, I like most of the shows.
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I love watching Black-ish.
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I enjoy the show I have no qualms with it.
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Abagond, will you be watching the roots reboot?
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omg the wife loves modern family i am not feeling that one, but blackish is a great show, i need to watch the new one.
i always be thinking, also there is tyler perry, with a distinct subtheme? let’s say, he seems to want to be teaching a lesson… i’m not ready to make a sweeping cultural thesis right now.
i pretty much let my wife pick the tv shows which starts every day with jerry springer.
all caught up on scandal, for sure.
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He actually has a wife named Rainbow like the character Traci Ellis Ross. I wonder is she a surgeon as well like the character on the show?
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Modern Family is another of my favorites along with Blackish.
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@ Mary
She is an anaesthesiologist, has five children with a sixth on the way and is mixed race. Which is not far off from the character on the show.
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For some reason…I don’t care for the show although I’ve never watched a complete episode. That’s sad too, because I really like and appreciate all of the talented 3 adult actors. There’s something that goes off in the back of my mind that says, “An evolution of Amos and Andy”…? Although that perception could be really off, there might be something to it.
Personally I have a disdain for shows that are all about us ‘skinnin’ and grinnin’ on TV. Yes we have a rich sense of humor, and can make fun of anything with our lazer perfect observations and sensitive INsight about ‘what really Is’ in our world. So shows that fall back into what I term, the Jewish (creators/writers/producers) view of humor (well this is Black-ish).. and public comedy turn me off. I’ve evolved, know lots of other people that also have expanded ideas, and feel that we should be coming up with something a lot more enlightened, and real.
I do understand the issues that we’re trying to deal with, ~ loss of our own ability to control the culture that is passed on to our children, as well as the the culture controlling us in our own professional lives ~ but when will someone stop and say “Hey! We don’t think like that here. This is how we see the situation, phenomena or event in our home. And this is why….Because we believe that Life is….Or we don’t make decisions or take actions, that separate us from an understanding of Life that says…..” I don’t know, maybe if I’d watched an episode long enough, I’d that the adults do say that.
No insult intended. I’m just asking for us to all live and act from our Heart’s Integrity and reflect an elevated/enlightened use of our intelligence, especially when we’re fortunate enough to be in influential positions. I know it’s hard to get a pass to get a show produced and aired, so we need to keep up the clamor started around the award shows. We need not just more of us in certain positions. Those of us already in the industry, need the liberty to present what we want, as we want it presented to the public. And as I write, I feel that that’s the real issue. And that is long overdue.
No need to argue with me. Just food for thought…and sharing my mine.
Love your blog Abagond.
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I like watching “Blackish” and “Fresh off the Boat”.
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Kenya Barris, an intelligent man, but unfortunately, he also sounds like a man living a scripted life who has failed to recognize the chain around his neck, shackles around his ankles and thus, an arrested imagination.
“Black-ish” – Blackish, something similar to being black, but not really black, only pretending.
“Barris says he wants to be both funny and “honest”, yet he has to colour within the lines set by ABC.” – Well of course, every slave driven system called by another name, people in captivity have always had their boundaries set by their captors. It’s usually referred to as control by the slave masters.
“And, like “Cosby”, Barris wants to be inspirational to Black people. That also limits him.” – In a system that caters to and operate on the fuel of white supremacy, giving those people within the clutches of a beastly system a jolt of innovation or inspiration is a dangerous proposition that the master may have to contend with in the future. Did someone say rebellion?
“At the same time he also wants non-Blacks to watch and laugh – and think about how they view Black people.” – If black folks were truly a free and sovereign people, collectively, we wouldn’t be so concerned about how people from another nation views us as a whole and certainly indifferent if they watched our television shows at all.
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Our only solution is to tell our own stories with no white filters. Sure, we have black writers and producers, but the industry is still ruled mostly white folks for white folks. You may have a show that features people of color, but what are their roles? What are their topics? How long are they going to be on the show? How long is the intended span of the series?
Your initial vision will have to go through executives and staff who will say “change this, add that” or “take whatever out”. And sometimes those changes will turn your idea into a steaming pile because it’s what they THINK the public wants.
I confess. I’m not a huge fan of “The Cosby Show”. Sure, it’s monumental, but for me, it seemed bland. It was like watching “Father knows best” in black face. It was cool having an upper-middle class black family on the small screen that didn’t have any negative stereotypes. But I was into shows that touched on real issues at least once per season.
I also confess that I’m not really a fan of “Empire”. I saw one episode and it didn’t do a thing for me. Literally, I just couldn’t get into it. Maybe I should watch more episodes and see.
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I’m not a fan of Blackish for reasons I posted in the previous topic.
After my post, I sat down and watched an episode, but I didn’t make it through until the end. Same with Fresh Off the Boat.
Both shows engender a weird cultural voyeurism which is so whitewashed as to make both shows useless.
The show I despise the most though is The Goldbergs. It’s a bastardized parody of the 80s era as seen through the whitest of white American lenses.
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I admit i was rolling with Empire at first because it was fun and I liked the music and all the crazy soap opera drama but something has happened to the show and it has devolved into a big steaming pile of stupid and it’s lost it’s appeal. So I am not riding on the Empire train.
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Meh…I watched 80’s sitcoms like every other person in America as a child, growing up in the 80’s. I enjoyed them, because i was too young to understand what i was watching.
Being an adult and having dealt with the world, i don’t care for sitcoms.
I don’t even like the scripted laughing that is always prompted in the background. Its so fake….
However, i like Cable TV shows.
Please tell me that you guys watch, “UNDERGROUND” on WGNAMERICA!!!!
Its about slaves, escaping their plantation in the 1800’s.
That show is the only show i can remember that tells this kind of story and it keeps me on the edge of my seat and having me clamoring for more by the last 5 minutes, wishing it would continue for another hour!!
Abagond, you have to be aware of this show, right? I would be surprised if you and the rest have not watched it, much less are not aware of the show!
I never watched it on its parent station before as i watch it on my days off….
Catch it on Wednesday nights:
http://www.wgnamerica.com/series/underground
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Yes to all of this, especially that last statement.
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@ Kiwi
I noticed that too. It reminds me of that BuzzFeed video which falls into the same fallacy:
More:
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@ Jabari Jones
Yes:
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