I caught the series premiere of Black-ish, a new sitcom starring Anthony Anderson and Laurence Fishburne last night.  The show centres around an upper-middle class black family and the culture clash between the father and his kids.

Black-ish trailer via IGN

While the generational culture clash plot line isn’t new, it’s also rarely told (and narrated) from the older generation’s perspective, which I find fresher.  The first episode was a little bit over-the-top, but as a child of immigrant parents, I completely understand where both he and his kids are coming from.  The children just weren’t exposed first hand to the upbringing he had, just like *I* didn’t grow up in Hong Kong.  For example, the oldest son wants to be called Andy (rather than André) and is on his school’s field hockey team (while the father wanted him on the basketball team.  Yeah.  Stereotypical).  The narrator’s father (jokingly?) criticizes his mixed-race daughter-in-law’s dinner of baked “fried” chicken (again, stereotypical, but funny, at the same).

As a CBC, I can definitely relate to the kids.  My parents tried, but probably never fully understood why I liked certain things growing up, and I don’t think they do now, either.  And yes, I’ve had my fair share of criticisms, though more from my (more traditional) grandmother than from my mom and dad.  One thing that stuck in my head was when my grandmother tried to force me to like math and sciences, not because she thought that more girls should have STEM careers when they grow up, but because it’s easier for Asians.  I was in Grade 6 or 7 at that time and wanted to be an English or social sciences teacher.  Whatever.  I didn’t listen to her, of course, and majored in history and drama.  I think my grandmother also conditioned me to hate gym because she told me that I would have “thick legs” if I worked out too much.  It wasn’t until I was 30 that I began to like exercising.  And no, I don’t have “thick legs.”  In fact, I like my legs NOW more than ever.

One thing that bothered me about the first episode was the over-emphasizing of the narrator’s position as the “first black senior vice-president.”  While my Chinese culture was emphasized at home and my grandmother certainly had her own stereotypes about being Chinese in Canada, being the “first Chinese” (or “first Asian”) anything just wasn’t a big deal.  For example, I don’t really recall my family (or the greater Chinese community in general) emphasizing Adrienne Clarkson’s Hong Kong/Chinese heritage when she was appointed Governor-General in 2000 other than mentioning it briefly.  Mainstream (i.e. “English language”) media did not either.  To me, the show is more about socio-economic class clashing (the narrator grew up poor) than about ethnicity.

I realize that all the stereotyping on the show is for entertainment’s sake, but it gets really annoying and I don’t think people do this in real life.  You can identify as being whatever your heritage is, but you don’t go overboard emphasizing that.  Or maybe it’s because I’m Canadian and we tend not to do this sort of thing.

Did you catch the Black-ish premiere?  What are your thoughts on the show?  Do you think it’s more about ethnicity or class?

Black-ish airs on ABC at 9:30 PM ET/PT and simulcasts on CITY-TV at the same time.

*CBC is short for Canadian born Chinese