Amos and Andy was a black sitcom that was popular in the early 50s. The star characters where slow, easily conned black men with wise wives and constantly being taken in deals by others in their society. Amos and Andy is, unfortunately, a buzzword for racism. That is too bad.
I urge you to consider the ongoing topic here as I am going to refer to this post over the next week as we explore this. This cast of characters is little different than the Honeymooners or Life of Riley or any number of "white only" sitcoms that populated the screen. The usual depiction was a bunch of clueless husbands and their idiot friends with patient, all knowing and understanding wives just ready to tell them "I told you so" and to comfort them during life's little ups and downs.
My point is that this humor setting, when applied to a minority can easily and probably rightly, be called racist. When it is applied by white televisionland to white families it is a sitcom. Let's start there. I'm not sure I'm right or wrong about this but I want to think about it some.
I urge you to consider the ongoing topic here as I am going to refer to this post over the next week as we explore this. This cast of characters is little different than the Honeymooners or Life of Riley or any number of "white only" sitcoms that populated the screen. The usual depiction was a bunch of clueless husbands and their idiot friends with patient, all knowing and understanding wives just ready to tell them "I told you so" and to comfort them during life's little ups and downs.
My point is that this humor setting, when applied to a minority can easily and probably rightly, be called racist. When it is applied by white televisionland to white families it is a sitcom. Let's start there. I'm not sure I'm right or wrong about this but I want to think about it some.