The Analysis of Black-ish

The Analysis of Black-ish

       The analysis of American sitcom Black-ish tells the story of an African-American family. The leading protagonist is a middle –class African, who has four children. He wants to adopt the African tradition to educate his children, but he meets all kinds of challenges because both of his wife and his children are against the idea.

     Black-ish is a comedy show in which the majority of protagonists are African-Americans, and the clashes between African-American culture and Anglo-American culture exist everywhere. The leading protagonist Andre is a vice CEO in a company, and his wife Rainbow is a doctor, which makes his family different from many other African-American families who are struggling at the bottom of society. However, the identity as an African-American is haunting him all the time, which on the other hand reflects the sensitivity in psychology for many African-Americans. In the modern American society where racial discrimination has been blurred, Andre is eager to embrace the stereotyped African-American culture. He does not want his children to be assimilated into the white culture. In the show, Andre tries his best to stick all kinds of labels of African-American culture to his children such as Hip hop, Basketball or pure African culture.

     Since both of Andre and his wife are successful, their children go to the best private school and get in contact with lots of white children, which makes Andre worried. For example, in the first episode, his son who goes to the private school tells Andre that: Dad, I don’t feel black.’ These words strike Andre because Andre worries that his son has become homogeneous and abandon their African culture. On the other hand, the scene also reflects that in such a society like America which is regarded as a big melting pot, it is easy for people from other culture to be assimilated. Andre tries to instill his children with African-American culture, but he does not realize the important role of environment. Since his children grow up with white children and are influenced by their peers, it is difficult for his children to accept African-America culture fully. Hence, when his son told Andre that he wants to go to bar in the first episode, Andre tells his son that: ‘well, this is not our culture and tradition.’ In the eyes of Andre, going to bar is the tradition of white Americans, and he tries to show his children what African culture is. It could be seen that in the whole episodes, Andre tries to emphasize the important role of African-American culture and tries to use it to influence his children, but it fails. It reflects the current conditions for many African-Americans who tries their best to protect African-American culture and tries to pass it to the next generations. However, since their next generations live in the modern society where young people accept the modern American culture and become homogeneous.

      This TV show has quite important meanings because it reflects the issue of racial identity. In the past, American TV shows are dominated by white Americans. The colored Americans such as African-Americans and Chinese-Americans are usually stereotyped in an ironic way. This comedy shows the conditions and worrisome problems for many colored Americans who want their next generations to be passed on with the old traditions.

      However, like many people, Andre does not know how to educate his children with African traditions. The more he tries hard, the more mistakes he makes. For example, in Episode three, he tries to recover the African tradition of hitting his children when his children make mistakes, which makes his children scared. In this way. His children become fearful about African-American culture and relate African-American culture with brutal-ness. It could be seen that Andre has adopted a wrong way to pass African-American culture to his children. It gives a reference to many other colored people that they should use the right way to pass the old tradition to the next generations. Otherwise, it would have the reverse effects, and the next generation will refuse to accept the traditions.

     This sitcom actually reflects the old theme—assimilation which has been an old theme in many TV shows where the older generations always attempt to pass the generations in the ‘old world’ to their next generations in the ‘new world.'  The African-American assimilation is one of the most obvious assimilation and catches the attention of many people. Black-ish demonstrates that like many elder African-Americans, Andre refuses to accept the reality of the complications of African-Americans. For example, he accuses his wife of not being black, which shows that he cares about his African-American identity to a large extent.

     In conclusion, the comedy Black-ish demonstrates the clashed between the leading protagonist Andre and his children and his wife towards the adoption of African-American culture. The TV show could be a reference to many other colored Americans.