Netflix’s new animated series Good Times: Black Again, originally a reboot of the 1970’s classic sitcom Good Times, has been under fire for its apparent offensive remarks and outlandish stereotypes of black people.
After Netflix released its trailer, Black Twitter was sure to make their views known and called out the series for perpetuating negative stereotypes of an offensive nature, The Root reports.
Photo: Netflix
One commenter said: “Just saw a glimpse of Good Times Again by @StephenCurry30 and I am so embarrassed for the Black Community……Extremely disappointed #Netflix.
Journalist Candice Fredrick too followed the same sentiment announcing that the added salt to injury “which feels like it resulted from an AI search of “stereotypical Black shit”.
Since the uproar in which the show received, I obviously had to watch it and since I have developed my position that the remarks of the show, while stereotypical, confirmed a few key lessons that I have seen to be somewhat factual.
Lesson #1 – The most notable lesson from the series was generational trauma. This was shown through the relationship between Nino Brown, a drug dealing one-year old and physically present but neglectful Father Reggie also known as J.B. Throughout the show, Nino is represented as a rich baller baby, who is kicked out of his home. We are shown that the relationship between Reggie and his son is one that is fairly strained and somewhat hateful, however in the episode titled ‘Moving on Out , told from the perspective of Junior Reggie's eldest son the relationship between Nino and Reggie is one that is indicated to be healing. Reggie spends time with Nino playing a game of basketball in their neighbourhood against their opponents and Reggie says “I guess you could’ve sprayed out of my nutsack after all son’ in this moment Nino and Reggie with the stylised animation expressing love between the two, an important lesson is then later learnt when Reggie promises Nino ice cream but in a selfish manner Reggie forgets because he becomes infatuated with his new taxi that Nino gifted him. The lesson here is Reggies neglect, he makes promises and often fails to fulfil them, thus leading me to assume Nino’s drug dealing habits are a result of Reggie’s neglect, in which he teaches himself to be independent so he doesn’t have to rely on anyone and ultimately can prevent himself from rejection – a trope of the avoidant-resistant. Reggie’s neglect however, is not solely the fault of his own, his mention of his family only extends to his grandfather and not his father, and as a result placed his expectations of his role of a father based upon the seeming absence of his own. He is not selfish and neglectful because he wants to be, but because his own father likely was to him, therefore producing our trope of the generational cycle.
Lesson #2 – Inequality as a representation within Good times, may be the most respectable because the portrayal of a corrupted systematic state, including the affiliates of Billionaire moguls wink, wink at Elon Musk (don’t cancel me please I’d still like a Tesla). The representation of Beverly, the wife of Reggie and mother, holds status to many struggles that black women face including that of simply mother and wife. In my humbly controversial opinion the world has long considered black women as bearers of children, who cook, clean and of course are fuckable (excuse my French). But, despite the many wonderful qualities in which black women attain, men, black men more specifically in this case disrespect us time again as portrayed between the relationship of Beverly and her husband. In once scene, that I found particularly assuming, Reggie's on to rant about his day and in turn Beverly puts in her earphones listening to a calming mediation by a black women guiding Bev to smile and nod ‘act like you give a fuck’. From this scene I understood two things: one black woman shares a universal burden expected to deal with low-rent and low-effort men and two, black women are constantly performing. Beverly not only performs as the doting wife for her husband, but she is later represented as a pawn in the game of the government to demolish social housing and build high-end luxury real estate, curbing the already disadvantaged black people of the community further out to society. The government manipulates and weaponises her weakness of vulnerability and yet her strongest desire for power, offering her something beyond homemaker that she stereotypically performs. Arguably, the extension of her daughter Grey as an aspiring black activist is performing in school to receive grades for college so she can get out of the hood. To sum, representation of inequality is controversially one of the most nuanced and complex that I have seen within cartoons featuring black people and should be a point to consider beyond betraying the show for stereotypes.
Lesson #3 - The final lesson from Good times, is arguably one of the most stereotypical and yet controversial to speak about because I believe that it has truth. Junior’s underlined ADHD is a narrative that is showcased from the perspective of the producers but ignored by his family. A study has shown that there are significant racial disparities when treating children with ADHD, specifically with white children being more likely to receive treatment than children from Asian, Hispanic and Black backgrounds. In the show the junior illustrates various traits of an attention disorder, often in the context of completing school work, referenced by his inability to successfully pass 10th grade, a joke that is often made by his family calling him stupid. The sentiment here is that Junior is in fact not stupid but has a creative flair, something that is looked down upon in his family. He is only ever praised when he surpasses Grey in biology with his A+++ grade due to ingesting attention pills. This narrative lies firmly in black families being ill equipped with knowledge about learning and behaviour differences. While this lack of understanding shown by the grey family, it is a narrative that can be held to be firm within stereotypes about black people, it is an experience that is faced by many black children, often falling into the shadows within the education system because they go undiagnosed.
While it is not beyond me to consider the numerous stereotypes that are placed within the show, such as drug dealers and black people on the poverty line, I think it is not wasted to regard the show as something that offers a lens to the struggles of the black experience to be made in a comedic way. The representation of negative stereotypes in this sense could be considered to offer us a reality while, for you and me may be far off and extremely offensive is not completely baseless. Even if the portrayals of the show hypothetically were based on AI portrayals as Candice Fredrick points, we should look for the good in the bad – I am not telling us as a community not to be outraged, because rightfully it should be owned but sometimes we should look for the good in a bad situation. The answer to whether I liked the show, I would say yes I did, the producers should potentially consider some of the online debates but then again a show like this was made to reflect outrage, one that exists within the show and outside of it. I would go as far to say, it's a ghetto reinvention of Proud Family (please don’t cancel me).
Printed by Kayla
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