TV General : The Cosby Show was a utopian Brooklyn where racism didn't exist.

The Cosby Show was a utopian Brooklyn where racism didn't exist.

The Cosby Show was pretty unique for an African American sitcom in the 80s.

There were groundbreaking black shows like Good Times, which showed the plight of the struggling poor African American family in the projects. There was the Jeffersons, in which a black business owner went from poor to successful through determination.

But then there was the Cosby Show, where their race was never a central issue. They weren't a black family, they were just a family, and a wealthy one at that. The show was void of any references to the hardships of systemic racism. The kids never experienced racial bullying at school. The college-aged children never referenced what role their race played in getting accepted at college.

Both The Cosby Show and Good Times are important and groundbreaking in their own right.

Have you had your coffee today?

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Re: The Cosby Show was a utopian Brooklyn where racism didn't exist.

race was never a central issue….They weren't a black family, they were just a family

And how did Dr. Huxtable and his wife (both blacks) manage to have a biological daughter that looked like biracial Lisa Bonet? Hmm.

Re: The Cosby Show was a utopian Brooklyn where racism didn't exist.

The eldest daughter, Sondra, was like that too. She looked like one of her parents would have to be white, and in real life her parents were mixed.

Re: The Cosby Show was a utopian Brooklyn where racism didn't exist.

I've never noticed her as being biracial or out of place. She (and Sondra) just passed as light-skinned black people to me (and most). Physilla Rashad is light skinned too.

Have you had your coffee today?

Re: The Cosby Show was a utopian Brooklyn where racism didn't exist.

The 80s was a weird time to be alive. Reagan was president, the 'me, me, me' mentality was in full swing, the idealism of the sixties was looked upon as naive, greed was good, popular music (synths and drum machines) and fashion (big hair and spandex pants) was terrible (and now laughable), and the racial tensions of the previous decades were dying down and we were entering a sort of 'post-racial America', a brave new world where trickle down economics (and covert wars against the commies) would save us all - or so we were led to believe. After all, in a society where economic status was everything - money could wash the blackest man white and vice versa.

The Cosby Show was a reflection of the changing attitudes of the time. Of course, a lot of it was bullshit. Blacks were still mostly poor and pissed off (and often with good reason to be) but Bill Cosby and other token black celebrities of the decade gave guilt ridden whites a reason to celebrate: eventually all or most blacks would be like Dr. Huxtable and his lovely family i.e., white people with black skin, and everything would be just peachy.😁

But then reality stepped in. By the early 90s, L.A. was burning and racial tensions were flaring once again. And let's not forget Tawana Brawley, Al Sharpton, Crown Heights, OJ Simpson, Mark Fuhrman, the L.A.P.D., Louis Farrakhan, 'Crips' and 'Bloods', militant rap music, etc. Whatever 'good' shows like The Cosby Show did to change perceptions on race, the violence and hatred unleashed in the following decade quickly undid and it seemed like we were back to square one when it came to race relations in America.

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