How Bill Cosby Changed Television

Bill Cosby has been praised for his show, The Cosby Show because of its representations of blacks in television. It was a great shift during the 80-90's when television shows only represented blacks as a simple character that didn't have much of a background. Cosby opened the floor and allowed a middle-upper class African American family to express their emotions and follow them through their daily lives. The characters were relatable and that caused many people, including myself to watch the show. The problems that have arisen from this show were particularly based on the fact that the show doesn't show a real representation of how many African Americans live. It gave a false portrayal of how simple social mobility is. The show along with others during this time gave the audience a sense of awareness that African Americans are doing fine. The article, Enlightened Racism by Sut Jhally, explained that there was actually an uproar in poverty for African Americans during this time and because the mythical world of television was telling us everything was “alright” many people thought there was no need for affirmative action. I believe that was the most troubling part of the article. Many people are naïve and believe what they see on television is true and that isn’t Bill Cosby’s fault, it’s our own. In order to shift this belief do we need to place African Americans in roles of hardship or impoverishment to get the audiences attention that not everything is all right? It seems like either way it will have a negative connotation.

After watching the intros of many television shows, I believe that Cosby did a good job of making the show light hearted and although the show gave the laissez faire idea it was a step in the right direction. It may not have fulfilled all the requirements necessary to shift the stereotypical African American, but it offered a good variety and started to normalize blacks in the television world.