I watched #BlackAF and it was #BarrisAF
Kenya Barris; writer, producer, actor* who has given the world Black-ish, Grown-ish, Girls Trip, Little and Mixed-ish decided to create a show based on his life. When I watched the trailer I was excited because of snippets that, upon watching the show, turned out to be misleading.
The music was great! The actors I saw were amazing! Rashida Jones, Issa Rae, Ava DuVerney, Lena Waithe? I mean, I was ready for comedy gold, which I got from time to time BUT most lines delivered by Kenya Barris diluted the punch(line). I felt like he was better suited behind the camera doing the writing and producing because when he was acting it felt like he was just casually stepping into frame to have a conversation with himself but hope the audience gets the message.
PRODUCTION
The documentary-style production was fantastic, I also enjoyed that the show was meta; they lived in this current reality where he IS Kenya and he DID make all those shows and references them and has celebrity cameos sprinkled in. His daughter Drea (played by Iman Benson) is making the documentary about her family to get into film school but from the looks of it she clearly doesn’t need to! At some point Kenya talks about the fact that he paid off a school to accept his first born Chloe (played by Genneya Walton) so I don’t see a world where he wouldn’t to that for his other children. The depiction of their lavish lifestyle was done very well, if you didn’t know privilege, watch the show, you’ll get it loud and clear. This family is so rich, it’s obscene. Yes, I love to see black men and women succeed, more please! However, I do not like to see the way their wealth is shown as the “stereotypical black wealth”. The LOUD, the FLASHY, the WASTEFUL, the GLOATING, the SHALLOW and most of all the HIDE-YOUR-STUFF-BECAUSE-MY-FAMILY-FROM-THE-HOOD-IS-COMING-OVER kind of wealth. It leaves a bad taste your mouth and dry eyes, from all the eye-rolling.
FORMULA-ish
If you’ve ever watched a Kenya Barris show (Black-ish, Grown-ish, Mixed-ish) you notice a pattern. Nay, a formula. All the shows are extremely well researched. The animated cut-aways explaining black struggles are eye-opening and educational. They are also light-hearted enough to let the audience take-in depressing facts presented in a friendly less depressing way. One of my favorite ones was on an episode of Mixed-ish (S01EP19) explaining the complicated history of medicine in the black community. It’s a great device that’s used in all of his shows and I feel that because Kenya makes his shows about educating white people about black culture it’s done in a way that doesn’t pose a threat to them. His white audience with their white fragility can get a kick out of learning about black people and black culture you know, in a safe space which they desperately need. In this show, it’s more realistic videos and clips for cut-aways than the cutesy animation which I like because it clearly communicates the message “this is our reality” in a way that white people can’t ignore.
The parents are always from completely different backgrounds, basically polar opposites. In Black-ish/Grown-ish Dre Johnson (played by Anthony Anderson) grew up poor in a terrible neighborhood with a strict mother and absentee father while on Mixed-ish, Rainbow ‘Bow’ Johnson (played by Tracee Ellis Ross) grew up on a Commune (pronounced ‘cult’) until she was twelve. She had a white father and black mother and lived in a community that chose to live away from society until it was raided. While both parents are successful, Dre and Bow have a different approach to parenting which brings comedic relief and relationship struggles. In Barris’ shows, the father figure is a ‘think out of the box’ outcast and the mother figure is on the straight-and-narrow. He usually writes powerful mother figures. Outcast who loves the professional and the professional who loves the outcast with every fibre of their being trope is always present in a Barris production. #BlackAF mimics Black-ish in an elevated way; more money, worse parenting, horrid children, and uncensored cussing (I like the uncensored cussing though). I fail to understand how Joya (played by Rashida Jones) is mixed. I mean, yeah she may be mixed but mixed with ancient black ancestors because her racial ambiguity is very loud! I mean, Rashida Jones played an Italian on The Office, now I’m supposed believe she is HALF black? I’m supposed to believe she’s “challenged about her blackness”? Nope!
The children on a Barris show follow the same Barris blueprint. On Black-ish, why does Junior (played by Marcus Scribner) have to be portrayed as weak? Oh yeah, because the lesson Barris tries to teach is about colorism; just because a black man is light-skinned it doesn’t mean he’s weak, but damn Junior is weak! How about Diane (played by Marsai Martin)? She is the darkest (in skin tone and in personality) of the Johnson children and the meanest, why? Why does Zoe (played by Yara Shahidi) have to be “the favorite” and the most conceited? Seems like Barris will write and cast stereotypes but also try to show how those stereotypes shouldn’t be the standard. On #BlackAF, he did a good job trying to stray from this norm. The darker girl, Drea, is smart and caring, and the lightest girl Izzy (played by Scarlet Spencer), is the mean one that the family is scared of…but Izzy is so far from black that in one scene when she was making a video with her white friends, I thought “why are a group of random white girls dancing around in this house? which Barris kid is friends with them?”.
Get Sarah W. Malinda’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
THOUGHTS I HAD WHILE WATCHING EACH EPISODE
These are just random thoughts I had as I watched the show that were not discussed above:
- Oh, so Issa Rae and that video call crew aren’t in the pilot? Ok
- They are cussing in this show? That’s different. I like it!
- Kenya Barris can’t act, he can write and produce though
- Wow, I never thought I’d be watching a Kenya Barris show and identify more with the sensible white people than the obnoxious black ones
- All the titles end with “because of slavery” AMAZING, then it get’s old
- The parents are petty and rude and the kids are all spoiled and ungrateful
- Joya was a lawyer before she decided to stay at home?? She’s a terrible mother and she doesn’t seem like she ever had a professional career
- Ok, Pops (played by Justin Claiborne) and Kam (played by Ravi Cabot-Conyers) didn’t shower for four days? FOUR!? That’s not black culture, we shower every day, keep it clean!
- Joya talking about her Second Act in life was motivational; that she chose to take time off and then go back to her career? HOWEVER, she says “black women” and I’m like “sis, are you black in this? I don’t see it”
- I have to see this show through to the end, it has it’s good parts but I’m not recommending this show to anyone
- I know there’s a saying “write what you know” DAMN, Barris has overwritten what he knows
- I did not enjoy this show as much as I expected to
