I’ve been intrigued with Will Smith and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air for a while— being honest I didn’t know about the show until I was in college, and then I didn’t care about it for some time, until I was doing a presentation on hip hop, and my partner and I created a rap circle out of our class and did a half rap to the opening tune of Fresh Prince. My partner (African American) was using Fresh Prince to explain how hip hop, and the culture that’s grown up around it, connects black Americans together as a community and how it also makes points that might otherwise have gone unsaid in a way that is widely understandable and applicable.
I’ve only made it through part of the first season now, but I can see his point. Fresh Prince probably does not push some issues as far as it could, but it brings them up and makes them understandable to a wide audience.
For instance, in the episode in which Carlton and Will are supposed to drive one of their father’s partner’s car to the resort the law firm will be vacationing at, the two boys are pulled over and arrested while driving down the road. Will, experienced with this sort of idea, argues with Carlton about the fact that they got pulled over and arrested not because they were behaving in a particularly suspicious manner, but rather that they got pulled over for being black. Carlton, raised in his wealthy family (and also frequently teased as being “white”), is unable to see how the police were in any way in the wrong. Neither is he able to see how the officers were in the wrong when they told his father to sit down and wait, treating him more like a common criminal busting into the law firm. Both Will and Uncle Phil know that there’s racism here, but Carlton can’t grasp it.
I feel like the episode probably could have pushed the issue more, but I understand why a show, in its first season, would be more modest about issues, especially when the show is reaching out to such a large audience. Added to this fact is that the show was aired in 1990, when tv shows were more careful about being liberal or progressive in their comedy. I see Fresh Prince as being an interesting show for its time.
I think it’s also worth noting that the family, while being entirely black, isn’t a parallel of what you’d expect to see from white families, or rather, I think through the character of Will, it questions why that’s considered the ideal family structure. It’s very subtle, not an outright statement, but Will’s character complicates the family. They see his presence, initially, as being a disturbance, a pestilence, basically, but over time, we all come to see that Will is not so ridiculous as perhaps he first seems, but rather that his way of living is just as valid as the next. While the show’s structure is perhaps not revolutionary in its portrayal of a black family, its perhaps a step in the right direction, and that’s something.
I have also recently re-watched the series and actually have been writing about the exact same example as you where Will explains to Carlton that the cops stopped them while driving an expensive car becasue of their color. I have also noticed that there are a large amount of serious scenes that bring up "black lives matter" issues. The show often involves small speeches towards the end of an episode that involve current matters (at the time) which I never reaised when I watched the show the first time around. Learning about race and racism has definitely opened my eye about how society and media treats the issue.
ReplyDeleteI see and acknowledge your comment about Will being a comedic nuisance in that he breaks up the black nuclear family structure, eg. the first episode of season 1 he wore a cap, baggy colourful t-shirt and a bow tie without a collar in order to remain intact with himself, and still follow orders from Uncle Phil's wardrobe demands for dinner. Although a positive with the show is that they promote subliminally that blacks can be well educated (Vivian & Uncle Phil) There is a lot of new, controversial ideas and onscreen normalities that Fresh Prince was challenging. We have to give them their due respect, in order to gain a place in the tv program, you need an audience and revenue; without the right balance of tact in racial approaches and social issues, there would only be one season. Back then it was not quite as aceptable and fashionable to challange status and social normalities. In later seasons, there is a full episode where Vivian teaches in the boys class about black rights and history for their school curriculum. Throughout this episode, they really truthfully face tension within schooling, whiteness, lack of black recognition and study, as well as a woman taking charge and taking a stand. This is the 90s and Fresh Prince was a very interesting platform for social, political, societal, marital, romantic and comedic content to be explored on air.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting about one of my favorite shows of all time, i cant help but agree with JayJulia22 and admit to watching it through a new lens after this paper.