“Mixed-ish” (2019- ) is a family sitcom on US television that features a mixed-race family: the mother is Black (Tika Sumpter), the father White and the three children are mixed-race. In 1985 they move from a hippie commune to the bosom of White middle-class suburbia.
Note: This post is based on only the first three episodes, the only ones that have been shown so far.
Spin-off: It is a spin-off of “Black-ish” (2014- ), showing the childhood of Rainbow “Bow” Johnson. Bow is the mother on “Black-ish”, played by Tracee Ellis Ross. On “Mixed-ish” Bow is 12 years old, played by Arica Himmel – with Ross narrating.
Sitcom unrealness: It is a good show if you do not think about it too much. Bow is in seventh grade at school. I still remember seventh grade. I remember being at a White-majority school where I was a target of the N-word and made fun of for my hair and my lips. True, it was the 1970s, but I doubt the 1980s were all that different. I can tell you that it took more than one heart-warming episode to get over people making fun of my hair. And I doubt I am alone on that one. But Bow learns to take pride in her hair in just one episode.
Anachronism: Also glaring is the whole “being biracial” thing. In the 1980s the One Drop Rule was in full effect. Bow and her brother and sister would almost certainly have been seen as light-skinned Blacks, not as “mixed”. They are nowhere close to passing for White. As I remember it, this whole idea of being “biracial” as something separate from being plain-old Black was started in the 1990s, pushed by White mothers who, understandably, did not want their mixed babies to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous racism.
The show’s greatest strength is also its greatest weakness: It is great that it deals with issues like natural hair and racial segregation at lunchtime. Especially on a family sitcom broadcast coast-to-coast to the still-White-majority masses. That is how things like being gay start to get normalized. But it is not so great that it thinks these issues can be smoothed over in one episode.
Kumbaya anti-racism: I love Bow because, like Lisa Bonet on “The Cosby Show”, she reminds me of me at her age. But she floats on a cloud of Sitcom Magic. Like “The Cosby Show”, it runs the risk of underplaying racism. In particular, it seems to push a sort of kumbaya approach. You know, we just need to be nicer to each other and be better informed. Racism in the US is a much darker beast than that.
Target demographic: But, like with “12 Years a Slave”, I suppose the show’s creators (Kenya Barris and his wife Dr Rania Barris, on whose life it is based), think they have to baby-feed their White viewers in order not to lose them. And maybe in the long run they are right.
– Abagond, 2019.
See also:
- Kenya Barris
- applicable phenomena:
- comparable television shows:
- 12 Years a Slave
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“Racism in the US is a much darker beast than that.” – so true, meanwhile we tip toe around our melanin challenged fellow citizens with shows such as these to allay their fears or try and tame the ones who are always on the attack. Some of them get even more ferocious when they see racial mixing.They are afraid their race is disappearing into ours. Gonna give this show a look see.
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Haven’t seen the show.
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As Dr. Robin DiAngelo discusses in “White Fragility,” when it comes to dealing with race and racism the goal of network TV shows to make “whites” not feel uncomfortable. TV racism is all about personal bias and the good bad binary. Never is there any real attempt to illuminate for the viewer the system of racism and “white” supremacy we all inhabit. Never do they pull back the curtain on the real deal.
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The premise of Mixed-ish reminds me of “Family Ties.” Sixties era parents raising Eighties era kids.
Black-ish and Mixed-ish do annoy me for spoon feeding knowledge and tolerance of black culture to an obviously intended white audience. It’s maddening.
I love Grown-ish. I wonder if it spoon feeds the realities of youth culture to adults the way the other shows focus on black people.
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I don’t own a TV because TV lies. TV is just a marketing platform to sell you a car and is possibly a mass surveillance device. And yes, I own an iPhone and laptop computer which are probably worse.
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I was on board with Black-ish it was funny and smart. Then it started to get stale and unfunny. I had no desire for Grown-ish because the older daughter’s character was boring. I saw the trailer for Mixed-ish and the trailer looked awful. So Mixed-ish is a hard pass for me.
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Why is my comment in moderation?
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@ Mary
“Trailer” is a moderated word because of “trailer trash”.
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” I was a target of the N-word and made fun of for my hair and my lips. True, it was the 1970s, but I doubt the 1980s were all that different. I can tell you that it took more than one heart-warming episode to get over people making fun of my hair.”
One irony is there is a vibrant natural African textured hair community on YouTube dominated by Black women from the US, UK, Brazil and Germany. They share natural hair care tips, styles and a great deal of pride in their natural hair.
Community members often comments about how much they have grown to love their kinky, coily, curly hair. They have developed a community language around the particulars of Black hair care and styles. It is not uncommon for community members to talk about their ‘big chop’ (cutting off chemically straightened hair) into a ‘TWA’ (teeny-weeny afro) as a rite of passage. They spend a lot of time talking about how to keep their hair ‘juicy’ (well-moisturized) to enhance texture definition and hair health.
What I’ve found most interesting is how women and some men from other ethnic groups have obviously been watching those videos. That is evidenced by the wholesale adoption of styles and techniques by Latinx, White and Asian women who create videos about how to do mini-twists, finger coils, Bantu Knots and twist-outs (a textured style that starts with twisted sections of damp natural hair). They even use the same community language that the Natural Hair community.
More than one White YouTuber has made clueless comments comparing her curly hair experience to the constant cr@p that Black girls and women experience on a daily basis about their hair. The response by Naturalistas is often swift and intense. Then the White YouTuber will respond by saying “it’s just hair and she has a right to wear it as she pleases….”. Her compatriots will echo her comment and what ensues is a:
Gasoline on Bonfire! flame war with hundreds of comments by Black women pointing out the hypocrisy of their position.
The final irony is that the same groups that punish or exploit Black women and girls about their natural hair textures are quick to appropriate Black hair styles for themselves with no attribution or reference to the Natural Hair community. Then some are even bold enough to claim similar oppression based on their hair (curly) texture!?!
I would not be surprised if some of the grandchildren of the same people who made fun of Abagond’s hair in the 1970’s are now claiming equivalence to the struggles of Black women to honor and love their own hair. Stranger things have happened.
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@ Otto Carnage
“TV is just a marketing platform to sell you a car and is possibly a mass surveillance device. “
A definite “yes” to both. The latest televisions are looking at you, listening to you and sending data back to the manufacturers…who then sell your information and possibly your conversations to third parties.
https://www.cnet.com/news/samsungs-warning-our-smart-tvs-record-your-living-room-chatter/
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@Afrofem
Just when I think that nothing surprises me anymore, I come upon comments such as yours. Sometimes I forgot how tough it is to be black and do ordinary stuff and just mind your own business. Perhaps it’s because I try to have as little contact with non melanated (whyte)people as possible. Thanks for reminding me what it’s like. (shivers)
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@ August Noone
“… to be black and do ordinary stuff and just mind your own business.”
It would be wonderful if Black people could live like other people in this country: with thriving, cohesive communities, filled with Black owned businesses, schools and community centers. It would be good to experience life without intrusive police surveillance and the constant threat of deadly violence.
Past commenters from other ethnicities have complained about being perceived as “foreign”, or not quite American enough. I’ll bet a lot of Black people would gladly trade being seen as “not from here” in exchange for the ability to just “do ordinary stuff and just mind [our] own business” in our own homes and neighborhoods.
It is that sense of constant intrusion that is most irksome. It is as though other groups believe Black people have no right to inhabit public spaces (like parks, stores, restaurants or student lounges) or private spaces like our own homes, clubs or churches.
It seems to be part of that “keep your friends close and your enemies closer”
ethos of the majority culture. They keep constant tabs on Black people because they are afraid of Black revolt and retribution. That has been true for hundreds of years. From Hudson Valley Pinkster celebrations in the 1700s,
https://www.timesunion.com/local/article/An-injustice-undone-after-200-years-1382337.php
to Freaknik gatherings in Atlanta during the 1980s, Black people just gathering to having fun is seen as a threat.
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As I remember it, this whole idea of being “biracial” as something separate from being plain-old Black was started in the 1990s, pushed by White mothers who, understandably, did not want their mixed babies to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous racism.
Did it work?
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@Herneith
“Did it work?”
Oh yeah, totally. Didn’t you hear, we elected a biracial president and solved racism.
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I agree with the comments that suggest the show is spoon-feeding racial awareness to a White audience. I mean, you’d have to be at least a “colorblind” White person just to watch the show right? So, you take people that wanna be “woke” but don’t know any actual Black people and you expose them to concepts that they might be aware of but haven’t put faces to before. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It’s also an entertaining sitcom staring people of color which isn’t completely set in a fantasy world where everyone is colorblind and treated equally.
I know the show is supposedly set in the 80’s, but that’s just a gimmick to ease the tension. Every part of the show is readily applicable to 2019. The show gives context to headlines for people that might not otherwise get that perspective. As a sitcom, is it fair to expect it to do any heavier lifting than that?
Anyway, I like the show, but I acknowledge, I might also be the target audience.
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Aba, you mixed?
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