Word: blacks
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...this is America: of course it's about race too. After Obama won, there was talk of a "Huxtable effect"--the idea that pop-cultural portrayals of African Americans from The Cosby Show to 24's David Palmer readied white America for a black President. But maybe there's an opposite factor at work here too--the 50 Cent effect. The impact of the Obamas comes partly from the unspoken contrast to a decades-old media archive of images of black people as problems or threats, from news to cop shows to hip-hop. Broken families, perp walks...
Suddenly the most photographed black man in America was giving speeches and calling world leaders. Suddenly the most discussed black women in America were two adorable kids and their lawyer mom. Suddenly you had a news story involving a black man and dogs, and it wasn't Michael Vick...
There's the chance that all the well-meaning Obamamania can turn into Look Who's Coming to Washington fetishization. A New York Times article about the Obamas' school search described "little girls ... swooning over the prospect of White House sleepovers with the daughters of the nation's first black President," as if kids care about the race of the dad handing out the invites. There's a gaping tone to some of the coverage: Wow, just look at them...
...other hand ... well, just look at them, on every channel and newsstand. And consider the context. This year the networks announced a schedule of new fall series without a single black lead character. Now America's biggest television show--a family comedy, a West Wing--style drama and true reality TV--has an African-American cast...
...plenty. That fashion glossies, which once rarely had cover models of color, would be jockeying for photo shoots with Michelle. That a TV business with long-standing diversity issues would be fascinated with this family's values. And that a still white-dominated press would look to a black man to boost its bottom line, fix the economy and save the planet. But will he still have time to take the kids to school when he's done? Tune in next week and find...