Political Physics: From the Huxtables to the Obamas
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a blogumn by Monique King-Viehland
Shortly before the Inauguration, Colin Powell was being interviewed about the Obamas arrival in Washington. “I mean, the Huxtables have come to town,” he said just hours before the inauguration, referring to the beloved African-American family from Bill Cosby’s popular sitcom, The Cosby Show. Powell gushed, “Look at his family, solid family, accomplished wife, two beautiful little girls, even a mother-in-law moving into the White House.” Then I turn on The View the morning after the Inauguration and there was Barbara Walters talking about how she thinks the Obama’s will debunk certain stereotypes that some white people may have about black people, comparing Obama’s election to what The Cosby Show did a few decades earlier.
Over the past few weeks I have been bombarded by this comparison between the Huxtables and the Obamas. The media has been continuously posing this question; will the perceptions of the typical African-American family change because we will get to know in a way, a very personal way, this new first family?
The short answer is yes, but here’s the thing:
The Huxtable’s were not real. They were characters on a television show. Did they have an impact on the perception of Black America, yes indeed. But instead of comparing the Obama’s to them, why not compare the Obama’s to the hundreds of thousands of other middle and upper-middle class black families in America.
There has been a Black middle class in America since before emancipation from slavery. Although they were more accepted they were still segregated from whites and were also isolated and even scorned by the rest of the Black community. They developed their own institutions, businesses, and places of worship.
Today, 40% of or 2 million African American households are middle to upper-middle class.
Today, the number of black children being raised by two parents appears to be edging higher than at any time in a generation, at nearly 40 percent. (Although it is important to note that a lot of successful people come out of single-parent homes, including President Obama, former President Clinton and myself.)
Today, 1.1 million African Americans age 25 and older have advanced degrees (e.g., Master’s, PhD, MD or JD) compared with 677,000 just ten years ago.
Today, there are more than 3 million black college students, up from roughly 1 million fifteen years ago.
Are those numbers lower than the national average? Yes. Are they lower than the percentages of White Americans in the same income brackets or white children in two parent households? Yes. Do we still have a long way to go? Yes. But that does not take away from the 2 million African American families who are less well known than the Obamas, but are here nonetheless and have been for some time – and are far more real than the Huxtables.
And how comical is it that the media who is largely responsible for perpetuating the negative and stereotypical images of African Americans, are now focusing on how the Obamas are countering that image. I think it is irresponsible and dangerous to hold up the Huxtables and the Obamas in a way that seems to imply there are no other positive images of black families out there because there are.
The real focus should not be on how comparable the Obamas are to the Huxtables, but on the challenges still facing the black middle class in America, on the high rate of African Americans who are struggling to “stay” middle class, on obstacles facing African Americans who are trying to transition into the middle class, etc. Or how about focusing on the myriad of issues facing the black community as a whole that remain problematic even with the election of the nation’s first “black president.”
Either way, the fact is that the Huxtables were not real. But the Obamas are, and I do feel so much pride when I look at them. But I still want America to know that the Obamas are one of many, and although we still have a ways to go, there are a lot of black families just like them across the US.
And they were here pre-Huxtable and will be here post-Obama.
This is a great article and makes a fair point. I avidly watched the Cosby Show in the 1980's as a child. I have since wondered why the only representation of an African-American family at this time was one that had to be acceptable to a white middle class audience. I thought the same thing about the A Different World and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, even The Bernie Mac Show – All representations of upper-middle class or at least, ultra successful African Americans in every aspect, except for the odd goof that would provide the humour for the show. Why, for example, couldn't there also be a black working class family like Roseanne's that was also acceptable? I guess that would have been a step too far, particularly in the eyes of advertisers.
Maybe there's also a cultural thing at play here too. In Britain most of our soap opera's and sit coms tend to be based around circumstances that are anything but aspirational – we like our escapism to be a caricatured reflection of ourselves, self-deprecating and something to identify with. The majority of US imported sit coms we see seem to be set in reasonably affluent environments; Friends, Frasier, Will & Grace et al.
So back to the case in point, I, like many of my British friends was thrilled to see Obama elected. Not just because he is a fantastic, 'real-life' African-American role model (naturally this is something I can't directly relate to) but because he seems like a thoroughly committed politician and all round decent man. We will watch with interest to see how he and his family challenge and change the stereotypes referred to in this article. I look forward soon to seeing greater diversity of representations of Black American families on our screens and not just those at the polar ends of the scale.
Fiona, thanks for the comments! It is interesting to get an international prospective on the issue. I wonder if you are correct about the notion of "acceptable" images of families like the Cosby Show, the Fresh Prince, etc. driving what shows Hollywood opts to put on the air. Ernessa is correct, we did have "Good Times," but a lot of people had issues with how it portrayed poor, black America as well. There was a show on for a short while called "South Central" about a single mother and her two children in LA. I loved it, but it appeared no one else did because it went away very quickly. It resonated with me, but maybe it was not "acceptable."
This is a great article and makes a fair point. I avidly watched the Cosby Show in the 1980's as a child. I have since wondered why the only representation of an African-American family at this time was one that had to be acceptable to a white middle class audience. I thought the same thing about the A Different World and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, even The Bernie Mac Show – All representations of upper-middle class or at least, ultra successful African Americans in every aspect, except for the odd goof that would provide the humour for the show. Why, for example, couldn't there also be a black working class family like Roseanne's that was also acceptable? I guess that would have been a step too far, particularly in the eyes of advertisers.
Maybe there's also a cultural thing at play here too. In Britain most of our soap opera's and sit coms tend to be based around circumstances that are anything but aspirational – we like our escapism to be a caricatured reflection of ourselves, self-deprecating and something to identify with. The majority of US imported sit coms we see seem to be set in reasonably affluent environments; Friends, Frasier, Will & Grace et al.
So back to the case in point, I, like many of my British friends was thrilled to see Obama elected. Not just because he is a fantastic, 'real-life' African-American role model (naturally this is something I can't directly relate to) but because he seems like a thoroughly committed politician and all round decent man. We will watch with interest to see how he and his family challenge and change the stereotypes referred to in this article. I look forward soon to seeing greater diversity of representations of Black American families on our screens and not just those at the polar ends of the scale.
Fiona, thanks for the comments! It is interesting to get an international prospective on the issue. I wonder if you are correct about the notion of "acceptable" images of families like the Cosby Show, the Fresh Prince, etc. driving what shows Hollywood opts to put on the air. Ernessa is correct, we did have "Good Times," but a lot of people had issues with how it portrayed poor, black America as well. There was a show on for a short while called "South Central" about a single mother and her two children in LA. I loved it, but it appeared no one else did because it went away very quickly. It resonated with me, but maybe it was not "acceptable."
Fiona, there was a black working class "Roseanne." It was called "Good Times" and actually came on before "Roseanne." Same thing goes for "Friends" — it was called "Living Single."
And it's well documented that the family sitcom was on it's dying breath before "The Cosby Show" came along and revived the format, spawning tons of white copycats, including "Growing Pains" and "The Hogan Family."
However, the value of "Good Times" is still debated. Some people like the show for being "real." Others felt it portrayed blacks as poor, downtrodden, and cartoonish. This is basically the same argument that some are putting forth currently about the success of "Slumdog Millionaire."
What's most upsetting about this entire debate is that there haven't been more black shows, depicting black Americans in all walks of life.
However, I do believe that there was something magical about The Cosby Show. It wasn't just a really positive depiction of a black family, it was incredibly funny. I don't think we've seen a family sitcom that got it so right on both levels since. Sad.
Fiona, there was a black working class "Roseanne." It was called "Good Times" and actually came on before "Roseanne." Same thing goes for "Friends" — it was called "Living Single."
And it's well documented that the family sitcom was on it's dying breath before "The Cosby Show" came along and revived the format, spawning tons of white copycats, including "Growing Pains" and "The Hogan Family."
However, the value of "Good Times" is still debated. Some people like the show for being "real." Others felt it portrayed blacks as poor, downtrodden, and cartoonish. This is basically the same argument that some are putting forth currently about the success of "Slumdog Millionaire."
What's most upsetting about this entire debate is that there haven't been more black shows, depicting black Americans in all walks of life.
However, I do believe that there was something magical about The Cosby Show. It wasn't just a really positive depiction of a black family, it was incredibly funny. I don't think we've seen a family sitcom that got it so right on both levels since. Sad.
Monique, thanks for pointing out that there are more middle-class black families now than ever before. If you only listened to the MSM and programs like "Black In America," you would think there were absolutely none.
However, it really upsets me when people don't give art credit where credit is due. No, "The Cosby Show" was not real, but it had an incredible impact on American and black culture. How many black people being raised in single parent or non-upper-middle-class black homes watched "The Cosby Show" and said, "Yes, that's what I want when I grow up." Just because they're not rule doesn't mean that they didn't inspire a lot of real-life cultural trends.
Bill Cosby went out of his way to inspire young black people with his show, and I would argue that there are many thriving black people today, b/c they watched this show and decided that they, too, wanted to be prosperous and raise a loving family. It never even occurred to me that I could get an advanced degree, marry someone else with an advanced degree who loved and respected me, raise a family and have fun while doing so before watching this show. They made me believe that there were families in this world that were like that and that I could be one of them. My dad worshiped Bill Cosby. He actually went back to school and got his first Masters after he saw this program. And I've no doubt that Obama watched this sitcom while growing up in a single-mother household. For all we know it also inspired him to start his beautiful family. Don't tell me "The Cosby Show" doesn't count just because it's not real.
Art influences Culture. Culture influences Art. It doesn't have to be an either or.
What's most upsetting to me is that there aren't more aspirational black shows in America. It's shocking that we're comparing the Obama Family to a sitcom that went off the air in 1992, b/c no great depiction of a black family has come along since.
P.S. — Though if you want to complain about the Huxtable keeping their huge house that super-clean without a live-in maid, feel free to go to town.
E, I agree that "The Cosby Show" was a trailblazer and I will give credit where it is due. And I am sure that it positively influenced a lot of black people – young and old. My point is that to compare them to the Obamas implies that there are not any others…..and there are and they are real! how inspirational would it be for people to know more about them!
What's funny is how different people react to different things. I did not like the Huxtables growing up. They were just too far-removed from me (growing up with a single parent and poor). It just seemed "fake" to me as a kid. Although I understand why now as an adutlt and see the value in the show. Conversely, I loved "Good Times," but I did think after John Amos left and they started to focus a lot of their story lines on Jay jay it did become cartoonish.
Where I think you hit the nail on the head is why aren't there more depictions of black, middle class people on TV? "Living Single" can get canceled but I cannot seem to get away from "House of Payne." It is insulting that we do not seem "sellable" to Hollywood.
Monique, thanks for pointing out that there are more middle-class black families now than ever before. If you only listened to the MSM and programs like "Black In America," you would think there were absolutely none.
However, it really upsets me when people don't give art credit where credit is due. No, "The Cosby Show" was not real, but it had an incredible impact on American and black culture. How many black people being raised in single parent or non-upper-middle-class black homes watched "The Cosby Show" and said, "Yes, that's what I want when I grow up." Just because they're not rule doesn't mean that they didn't inspire a lot of real-life cultural trends.
Bill Cosby went out of his way to inspire young black people with his show, and I would argue that there are many thriving black people today, b/c they watched this show and decided that they, too, wanted to be prosperous and raise a loving family. It never even occurred to me that I could get an advanced degree, marry someone else with an advanced degree who loved and respected me, raise a family and have fun while doing so before watching this show. They made me believe that there were families in this world that were like that and that I could be one of them. My dad worshiped Bill Cosby. He actually went back to school and got his first Masters after he saw this program. And I've no doubt that Obama watched this sitcom while growing up in a single-mother household. For all we know it also inspired him to start his beautiful family. Don't tell me "The Cosby Show" doesn't count just because it's not real.
Art influences Culture. Culture influences Art. It doesn't have to be an either or.
What's most upsetting to me is that there aren't more aspirational black shows in America. It's shocking that we're comparing the Obama Family to a sitcom that went off the air in 1992, b/c no great depiction of a black family has come along since.
P.S. — Though if you want to complain about the Huxtable keeping their huge house that super-clean without a live-in maid, feel free to go to town.
E, I agree that "The Cosby Show" was a trailblazer and I will give credit where it is due. And I am sure that it positively influenced a lot of black people – young and old. My point is that to compare them to the Obamas implies that there are not any others…..and there are and they are real! how inspirational would it be for people to know more about them!
What's funny is how different people react to different things. I did not like the Huxtables growing up. They were just too far-removed from me (growing up with a single parent and poor). It just seemed "fake" to me as a kid. Although I understand why now as an adutlt and see the value in the show. Conversely, I loved "Good Times," but I did think after John Amos left and they started to focus a lot of their story lines on Jay jay it did become cartoonish.
Where I think you hit the nail on the head is why aren't there more depictions of black, middle class people on TV? "Living Single" can get canceled but I cannot seem to get away from "House of Payne." It is insulting that we do not seem "sellable" to Hollywood.
Thanks for that Ernessa. Those other shows didn't make it over here for whatever reason. It's so interesting to hear how 'Good Times" was received because it was depicted as being "real". In Britian the exact opposite can be said. Characters featured in sitcoms that are seen as wanting to better themselves or those who have 'made it' already are endlessly ridiculed. It speaks volumes about our culture! I do think that the UK is pretty good at showing a variety of cultures on TV but we are a loooong way off having a black or asian (or mixed-race or gay or disabled etc etc) Prime Minister. We do have the female PM covered though.
As it goes, I always wished my Dad would grow up to be more like Cliff Huxtable!
Thanks for that Ernessa. Those other shows didn't make it over here for whatever reason. It's so interesting to hear how 'Good Times" was received because it was depicted as being "real". In Britian the exact opposite can be said. Characters featured in sitcoms that are seen as wanting to better themselves or those who have 'made it' already are endlessly ridiculed. It speaks volumes about our culture! I do think that the UK is pretty good at showing a variety of cultures on TV but we are a loooong way off having a black or asian (or mixed-race or gay or disabled etc etc) Prime Minister. We do have the female PM covered though.
As it goes, I always wished my Dad would grow up to be more like Cliff Huxtable!