The Cosby Show Social Inequality Analysis

It is clear that America suffers from social inequality and because of this television has been a critical impact on society's views, perspectives, and culture. From time to time, television's hegemonic approach subliminally sends stereotypically negative images of Black people and families. However, shows such as The Cosby Show, and Prince of Bel-Air, went against traditional stereotypes of Black Families by displaying their middle and their upper middle class family lives in distinct ways. Therefore, this paper examines these shows and present ways of how these shows go against the stereotypes and examine marriage, fatherhood, and stability within Black families. Since the beginning, television has not known what to do with black characters. It has struggle to place them in a position that White Americans could find comforting and digestible from the distance in their living room (Wilkerson, 1993). Throughout time, old stereotypes for Blacks were used as shorthand sociology. (Wilkerson, 1993). More recently, street movies such as “The Wire”, “Straight Outta Compton”, and “Power”, with …show more content…
The father is Cliff Huxtable who is an obstetrician and the mother is Clair Huxtable who is an attorney. They have five children, four daughters and one son, Sondra, Denise, Theo, Vanessa, and Rudy. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is an American television sitcom that stars Will Smith as a street-smart teenage from West Philadelphia who is sent to live with his wealthy aunt and uncle in Bel Air. The show depicts how Will’s working class background clashes with his relatives’ upper class background. Will’s uncle, Philip Banks is a judge, while his aunt, Vivian Banks is a professor with an doctoral degree. Will Smith has three cousins, Carlton, Hilary, and Ashley; later his youngest cousin Nicky is