TV Race and Class Representation in Everybody Hates Chris Sitcom

A sitcom is usually a situation comedy, half hour series. Within these half hour serious there is usually a problem that gets solved by the end of the show. Examples of sitcoms are: Family Guy, Modern Family and How I Met Your Mother. We study sitcoms because some shows support the status quo while allowing for contrary readings, we like that it is simple, easy, and we know what to kind of expect.

Frames the Working Class  are defined by 5 different characteristics of the working class that are shown in media specifically television shows such as Everybody Hates Chris.

1. Bad Taste
2. Lack of Intelligence
3. Disinterested in Politics
4. Poor Work Ethic
5. Dysfunctional Family 

I will be evaluating the television sitcom Everybody Hates Chris. In this sitcom the minority representation is more of a ridicule. A ridicule means that minorities specifically in this sitcom African Americans are there for amusement, they are not laughing with you, however they are laughing at you. The reporting policy regarding minorities (the issues) is police brutality. In the first video, a son is sitting down with his mother and a guy from a college to discuss  his plans for college. In the meeting, the college professor ask the mom how long she has had a heroin addiction, he then ask if she has multiple fathers for her children. This is indicating bad taste and also possible lack of intelligence and poor work ethnic. After she says that they have one father, he asks if she is aware of the fathers name. She then begins to feel very disrespected because these are stereotypes that are held against African Americans. At the end of the video 4 cops burst into the household during the interview with guns pointed at all the African Americans, one officer says "step away from the white man, out the pamphlets down" The bring Chris down to the floor as well as the college interviewer and they apologize to the white man but not Chris. This can be seen as a Dysfunctional family.

In the second video Chris is thrown in jail at the age of thirteen because of a racial profile saying that he "fit the description "of the person who was identified as robbing a white males house. When you look at the video of what the man actually described he said that it was a black man, medium completion, 6 foot 4 inches, brown eyes, yellow beanie, dark pants, size 14 dark shoes, and birth mark on back of left wrist. You it very apparent and said in the show that all the officer heard was, was that the person who robbed him was black.

I have noticed that within the sitcom although it is funny and points out the negative stereotypes that we have as African Americans it fails to say what to do. I see this show as funny but in reality majority of it is regarding racism that does not get fixed. In reality, we are ridicule, we are the joke essentially. There are a few positive attributes like the father working but he works so much that he is unable to see his wife or kids often. This is not showing a single parent household but they portray all the stereotypes of an African American. It does not help that he is the only black kid in his classes and he gets talked down to all the time. There are some sitcoms that try and make life as a person of color specifically black people, seem like everything is "okay" such as the Cosby Show. This show does not attempt to make life as a black person to seem "okay". They point out what is wrong but fail to address what they can do to fix the problem, instead it seems as if black people are the joke.