Race and Television

In order to achieve more multilayered and complex representations of black characters in television in the future, producers and consumers must study the past representations, understand their flaws and place them in a context with other representations of blackness. Analyzing television is important because it's also analyzing how television reflects the sometimes disturbing racial politics in the United States.
One way to analyze representations of blackness is to take what are considered to be key moments in television history and compare them. This method of picking and choosing may be flawed, but it means examining the shows that people actually watched and the ones that are believed to actually have made a difference. This method is particularly valid if someone is working under the assumption that each generation of television affects the next.
As one looks through history, it's fairly easy to see the influence shows of the past have on shows of the present. Amos 'n' Andy set up a precedent of black clowning that can be seen in the whacky characters of Good Times or Diff'rent Strokes. Amos 'n' Andy itself was based on a radio broadcast of the same name and with the same content and that radio broadcast was preceded by minstrel shows, which popularized the idea of the black clown. It still appears to be true that one of the best ways to find success as a black entertainer is through comedy. The satire Hollywood Shuffle shows a group of black actors trying out for a part and being told to be more like Eddie Murphy.
Race is a social construction. Because it is a construction, the media has more direct influence on it. The media has an influence on race that has incredible real world consequences.
Current views of race continue to be shaped by past media. In shows like Amos 'n' Andy, Beulah, The Jack Benny Show and Life With Father, black people are explicitly subordinated and all stories are told from the white perspective. The idea that the inferiority of blacks was so accepted by whites at this time is a startling realization when contrasted with the fact that the NAACP was so outraged by Amos 'n' Andy that they organized a successful campaign to have it removed from the air. While later representations of blackness might be considered flawed attempts at a proper portrayal, these early shows were created purely for the amusement of whites and confirmation of white ideals.
One theory about representation of black people and other groups on television is the reflection hypothesis, which states that television reflects dominant cultural beliefs. At the time of Amos 'n' Andy, racism was overt and prevalent, and at the time of The Cosby Show the culture made it a priority to appear as though racism was over. The reflection hypothesis suggests that every representation that comes about came about because that is the image of black people that dominated the culture of the time, but it doesn't acknowledge the very deliberate structure of television producers to make these representations dominant. Amos 'n' Andy was a deliberate attempt to reinforce the idea of black people as incompetent clowns. Julia was a deliberate and well-intentioned attempt at a less offensive and more appealing representation of blackness.
The Cosby Show adds to the diversity in representations of blackness because it shows that they can achieve upper-middle-class status, but it did not portray the millions of African Americans who were not as comfortable as the Huxtables.
The uplifting news is that in the television world of today, there are complexities to analyze, whereas in the times of Amos 'n' Andy and Beaulah, there wasn't much to say other than that blacks were subordinated and looked down upon. Now blackness on television includes such multilayered portrayals as The Boondocks and Chapelle's Show.
It is important also to analyze what's going on behind the screen. There are many prominent black producers, but their shows don't particularly deal with black themes. Most of the shows that deal with black themes are in the control of white people. It's important to look at producers because they are the ones who ultimately have control over what audiences see. It is not enough that audiences may want a change. If a real change is to be made in television, new people with new ideas will have to be in on the production.
Change is on the horizon because media production is no longer in the hands of very few. A growing number of people are able to produce media. In the 1980s, the studio system weeded out just about everything that didn't seem safe, so there were a lot of movies like Beverly Hills Cop, but independent film began to change that. All of the major studios created independent labels and while they were owned by majors, they did at least offer riskier projects and this led to more complex portrayals of reality, including the reality of race. A change like this one must occur in television if producers want people to continue to choose TV over other media forms that offer more interesting representations.
The argument that television will have to change in order to retain its viewers in a more diverse market place implies that the industry is driven solely by economics. If this is the case, then why have producers been putting energy into keeping minorities subordinated? In fact, most producers probably care very little about black people, not enough to be driven primarily by the idea of putting them in their place. What they are concerned with is presenting white middle class viewers with images that they are comfortable with, which generally means either showing black people as being so poor and comic that they are not a threat or as being exactly the same as white people, including not having to deal with racism against them.
Cultural analysis is always important to avoid total acceptance of everything that is sold and this is particularly true when what's being sold could be harmful images of minorities. The argument for the critical eye could be expanded far beyond examining race. The most important thing to hope for when hoping for improvements in media is to hope that people do not lose their ability to analyze and criticize.