Watching While Black : : Centering the Television of Black Audiences / / ed. by Beretta E. Smith-Shomade.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Rutgers University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2000-2013
• MitwirkendeR: Acham, Christine,; Burton, Nsenga K.,; Burton, Nsenga,; Cavalcante, Andre M.,; Cavalcante, Andre,; Coleman, Robin Means,; Coleman, Robin R. Means,; Cunningham, Mark D.,; Fuller, Jennifer,; Gates, Racquel,; Gillam, Reighan Alexandra,; Gillam, Reighan,; Havens, Timothy,; Heitner, Devorah,; LeDuff, Kim M.,; Leduff, Kim M.,; Lewis, Nghana,; Pierson, Eric,; Russworm, TreaAndrea M.,; Russworm, Treaandrea M.,; Smith-Shomade, Beretta E.,; Warner, Kristen J.,; Whaley, Deborah Elizabeth,
• HerausgeberIn: Smith-Shomade, Beretta E.,
• Place / Publishing House: New Brunswick, NJ : : Rutgers University Press, , [2013]; ©2013
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (280 p.) :; 33 photographs

Television scholarship has substantially ignored programming aimed at Black audiences despite a few sweeping histories and critiques. In this volume, the first of its kind, contributors examine the televisual diversity, complexity, and cultural imperatives manifest in programming directed at a Black and marginalized audience. Watching While Black considers its subject from an entirely new angle in an attempt to understand the lives, motivations, distinctions, kindred lines, and individuality of various Black groups and suggest what television might be like if such diversity permeated beyond specialized enclaves. It looks at the macro structures of ownership, producing, casting, and advertising that all inform production, and then delves into television programming crafted to appeal to black audiences—historic and contemporary, domestic and worldwide. Chapters rethink such historically significant programs as Roots and Black Journal, such seemingly innocuous programs as Fat Albert and bro’Town, and such contemporary and culturally complicated programs as Noah’s Arc, Treme, and The Boondocks. The book makes a case for the centrality of these programs while always recognizing the racial dynamics that continue to shape Black representation on the small screen. Painting a decidedly introspective portrait across forty years of Black television, Watching While Black sheds much-needed light on under-examined demographics, broadens common audience considerations, and gives deference to the the preferences of audiences and producers of Black-targeted programming.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: I See Black People -- PART I. PRODUCING BLACKNESS -- 1. The Importance of Roots -- 2. Two Different Worlds: Television as a Producer’s Medium -- 3. A Black Cast Doesn’t Make a Black Show: City of Angels and the Plausible Deniability of Color-blindness -- 4. Blacks in the Future: Braving the Frontier of the Web Series -- PART II. BLACKNESS ON DEMAND -- 5. “Regular Television Put to Shame by Negro Production”: Picturing a Black World on Black Journal -- 6. “HEY, HEY, HEY!” Bill Cosby’s Fat Albert as Psychodynamic Postmodern Play -- 7. Gimme a Break! and the Limits of the Modern Mammy -- 8. Down in the Treme . . . Buck Jumping and Having Fun?: The Impact of Depictions of Post-Katrina New Orleans on Viewers’ Perceptions of the City -- PART III. NEW JACK BLACK -- 9. Keepin’ It Reality Television -- 10. Prioritized: The Hip Hop (Re)Construction of Black Womanhood in Girlfriends and The Game -- 11. Nigger, Coon, Boy, Punk, Homo, Faggot, Black Man: Reconsidering Established Interpretations of Masculinity, Race, and Sexuality Through Noah’s Arc -- 12. Graphic Blackness/Anime Noir: Aaron McGruder’s The Boondocks and the Adult Swim -- PART IV. WORLDWIDE BLACKNESS -- 13. Resistance Televised: The TV da Gente Television Network and Brazilian Racial Politics -- 14. South African Soapies: A “Rainbow Nation” Realized? -- 15. Minority Television Trade as Cultural Journey: The Case of New Zealand’s bro’Town -- Notes on Contributors -- Index