Welcome to the wasteland

To my father on his birthday who watches the wasteland every night between 5 and 9.

Garbage.

Nine times out of 10 when my mother sees a black comedian on TV she's says the show is garbage. Before I can say a word, she's labeled the show as buffoonery, "tomming," - some old "buck and wing," blackface, grinning tomfoolery. Normally when it comes to political or social opinions, I jump on the Deloris Belton bandwagon, but our differences on TV representations point up a generation gap.

One person may see artistic comedic expression while another views it as "shucking and jiving." To believe shows such as "The Wayans Brothers" on the WB network or the new "The P.J.s" on Fox are not insulting to black people, you have to accept two things:

- There are enough varying depictions of blacks on television that there is no way to attribute a certain type of behavior to one group. Therefore there is a healthy balance between the positive and negative representations of blacks on television.

- America's view of the black race in our society has segmented to where people realize that what occurs on one fictional show is not an accurate representation of all black life.

These two statements are true when it comes to describing whites roles on television. Within just the big four networks, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, roles for whites range from dramatic to comedic to supernatural. There are action heroes, lawyers, doctors, sports reporters, magazine editors, models, secretaries, white-collar workers and some (but not many) blue-collar workers. Within this diversity the only conclusion a non-white person could draw from the programming is that most American's are white-collar workers with jobs that rarely involve physical labor. Of course, we know that's not true. We all understand that just because white people act one way on television doesn't mean that is the behavior of the race as a whole.

With black people the two statements tend to be a little more tricky. A critic of television could contend that both these statements are not the case for blacks' images. Currently, all shows that feature majority black casts are comedies. And when blacks are placed in roles outside of comedies their characters are limited and sometimes stripped of personality (i.e. "blackness").

Often critics within the African-American community can't determine the difference between personality and a caricature. To strip a character of blackness makes the actor so one-dimensional that a person of any racial or ethnic background could step into the role. In the comedic shows such as "The Wayans Brothers" and "The P.J.s," critics accuse the show of presenting caricatures of black life. When does a personality become a caricature? If Eriq LeSalle started wearing kente cloth operation scrubs on "E.R." would that turn him into a caricature? If Eddie Murphy's foamation character Thurgood was an accountant in the suburbs instead of a project supervisor in the inner city would that strip him of his personality?

The problem is that the television industry is based on character stereotypes. It's difficult to introduce a layered and complex character to an audience in a 22-minute sitcom. Sitcoms have always relied on stereotypes that an audience can recognize and identify with quickly. These stereotypes are such as the dumb blonde, the jock, the housewife, the loving father, the dumb husband and the smarter wife who loves him despite the obvious. The stereotyping is no different on black shows.

Therefore, since all shows with majority black casts on television are sitcoms, and all sitcoms are comedies featuring stereotypical characters, will non-black Americans and other ethnic groups assume that the behavior of the blacks on these sitcoms applies to blacks in this nation as a whole? I'd like to believe that America has come far enough to realize that a representation on TV doesn't apply to the race as a whole. But African-Americans are a group that has historically been seen as a whole.

Most African-Americans are embarrassed by stereotypes, believing that someone will assume one rule applies to all. Most African-Americans have the common experience of being the only black person in a store when another black person came in and behaved badly. You didn't know this black person who was loud and rude, but everyone in the store looked at you as if you know something they don't. How many times have black people gotten angry at one of their own because they believed that person was embarrassing the race? When black people stand up to speak whether they want to or not they are representing the entire race. It isn't fair, but it happens.

Although I enjoy some of the black comedies on television, I can see my mother's point. She grew up during "Amos 'n' Andy," two buffoons who ventured into get-rich-quick schemes with bugging eyes and exaggerated dialect. I can see how disappointed she'd become watching Marlon and Shawn Wayans do the same thing week after week on their show. I can argue artistic integrity, but for some reason she always sounds right.

But it's just not fair that the Wayans brothers should have to uplift the entire race on their 22-minute show. But that's what happens when you have to carry an entire race on your shoulders, as if carrying yourself wasn't enough.