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Season 3 Discussion

OnceSane

By OnceSane
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buckboard
buckboard

Was that an episode of Blackish or a Disney informercial?  (Guess it was both.) Why would a family in L.A. fly cross country to go to Disney World? I like this show, but Dre's juvenile behav

possibilities
possibilities

I hated that sooooo much. I know Disney owns ABC, but this took the synergy too far. Not only is it supposedly the best vacation, but you should be content to wait on long lines and the Florida heat/h

Deanie87
Deanie87

Wow, I actually turned this off before it was over and I was kind of embarrassed for the cast for having to do this long-ass commercial.  I'm glad that some of you liked it, but it all just seemed so,

jhlipton

jhlipton

On 2/23/2017 at 1:04 PM, Happytobehere said:

Junior was clearly tormenting Dre and while I am among the many who have slammed Dre's treatment of Junior, this behavior should have Dre more worried about Junior than Diane.  It shows a mean streak, a barely hidden desire to punish Dre and a propensity to act on those feelings (we've seen this to lesser extents with Junior going off on Dre, but the pattern is clearly there and escalating).  Dre better hope Zoe is around to take care of him in his old age, cause I don't think he will be happy with the treatment he would get at Junior's hands.

Was that before or after Dre said that he would kill Junior but another hapless soul would get jury duty?  Junior can and should do anything up to smacking Dre back when his father starts in on him.  Why wouldn't he have a desire to punish Dre????

  • Love 4
Vyk

Vyk

4 hours ago, Dee said:

Once again though, Miles Brown was the MVP of the episode. His Annalise Keating snot cry? HILARIOUS.

To be honest, I agreed with Dre that I don't need to see Annalise cry each week.  But that was hilarious.

Diane face-palming on the doll box over seeing the Selma stereotype doll made me titter, as did her wanting to hide her face when Bow launched her strike.

I really thought that Zoey and Jack were being set up to stomp Ruby and Junior and was shocked that they had them lose badly to them instead.

Dre should've left well enough alone with his ad.  It was just fine the way it was.

The season finale is getting closer.  We're gonna need to see Pops back sooner or later.

  • Love 6
Dee

Dee

(edited)

Anthony's mother looks just like him. The genes in the Anderson family are STRONG.

Quote

Diane face-palming on the doll box over seeing the Selma stereotype doll made me titter, as did her wanting to hide her face when Bow launched her strike.

Right?! And let's not forget Diane confirming Rainbow recited Phenomenal Woman, in Maya Angelou's voice, all the way to Sunglass Hut.

Edited by Dee
  • Love 7
qtpye

qtpye

God, I love Diane.  She is adorable and talented.  I actually love all the kids, which is rare in a sitcom.

I am surprised that someone as aware as Dre did not realize he was casting all light skin models, but it made sense he would not stand by his decisions.

Charlie forgetting to dribble had me howling and also reminded me about his story with Prince (rip).

  • Love 9
mtlchick

mtlchick

Quote

Once again though, Miles Brown was the MVP of the episode. His Annalise Keating snot cry? HILARIOUS.

Quote

To be honest, I agreed with Dre that I don't need to see Annalise cry each week.  But that was hilarious.

I love Viola Davis, glad she won the Oscar and enjoy HTGAWM.  But they were SO on point on this, I cackled for a good minute. 

I have to enjoy an episode where Diane is not the most overzealous woman in the family, and yet she still got her way like finally getting her nunchucks. 

It was a great episode, though I think my favourite throwaway line was when the men got their coffee orders: "Extra cream, Michael Jackson coloured." 

  • Love 3
ChromaKelly

ChromaKelly

Irony moment - Marsai Martin (Diane) plays an American Girl in the AG movie "Melody". She's really good too, and so is the movie. I think Bow would approve. Although it does have to do with civil rights... at least she's not marching on Selma while named Selma.
Dre's storyline was good too. I've noticed the preference for light-skinned and racially ambiguous actors and models in advertising. Like, that's the way to fill the diversity quotient and feature black-but-not-too-black people. There was an interesting discussion about this especially regarding women in the Race and Ethnicity thread in the Everything Else forum on PTV.

  • Love 9
vibeology

vibeology

Growing up in Canada we didn't have American Girl dolls until I was too old for them. Are they really like that? Because that was clearly the spoof. That whole plot was fabulous. Bow was just so over the top. I loved it and every one of her protest signs. Did she steal those dolls to burn or did she buy them just to burn them?

Also, I liked Dre's plot. It's easy to see how even Dre could fall into these traps seeing as those are the messages that surround him everyday. Here Dre thought he was making a big difference, but really if this is a pattern in his work, it's actually a problem. It just goes to show how even adults who think about these issues can easily be impacted by representation issues and how those issues become cyclical.

  • Love 5
monakane

monakane

(edited)

This afternoon I took a walk to the Marshall's store near my office.  This store has a large African American customer base.  When I walked into the store, there was a large display of dolls.  Every doll was white.  I don't have any children so I wouldn't normally even notice the display.  Bravo Black-ish for talking about this issue.  

Edited by monakane
  • Love 19
DearEvette

DearEvette

Great episode.  Lots of great points made and still very funny. Bow was hysterical.  Good showcase for Tracee.

Right out the box love the opening scene at the B-day party with Jeanine.  Gets right to the heart of continuing issues of the lack of intersectionality in feminism without hitting you over the head with it.  It felt natural that Jeanine felt very good about giving Diane the white doctor doll, never thinking that maybe a little black girl needs something a little extra more than just a  feminist toy.

Also, the Count Chocula bit cracked me up!

I really like Casey Wilson she was good as Patrice.  Also, Patrice-rhymes-with-Mattress was a great call back to the names thing and I immediately thought of A-A-Ron again.  LOL

The B-story was also good.  This is how they should use Ruby.

A few other fun things:

Sassy Selma came with an afro pick. LOL

Charlie's empty brandy snifter and him calling Dre out on 'beige rage' colorism.

and on a shallow note:  Zoey was rocking some really cute tops this ep. I especially liked the white one she wore early in the ep and then the cute oxford she wore at the spades tournament.

  • Love 3
peeayebee

peeayebee

3 hours ago, mtlchick said:

I love Viola Davis, glad she won the Oscar and enjoy HTGAWM.  But they were SO on point on this, I cackled for a good minute.  

She even snot-cried in Fences. I have to look away whenever a character in any movie or TV show snot-cries.

Good ep. 

Ruby: Jack, you're out. You know why.
Jack: Yeah I do.

I've never heard of Spades, only Hearts. I liked the fakeout that Jack and Zoey would give Ruby a run for her money. (Also, I thought the ep's tag would be Ruby wearing the crop-top.)

I thought Casey Wilson was excellent as Patrice, rhymes with mattress.

Dre having beige-rage surprised me. It was pretty funny though. Charlie using the examples of Dre picking milk chocolate out of the box and then not picking him for basketball was great. Of course everything Charlie does is great, like pretending to hold a brandy snifter while opening up his Boxable. 

Other guy at work: What the hell happened to the Debarges?

  • Love 5
ItCouldBeWorse

ItCouldBeWorse

3 hours ago, vibeology said:

Growing up in Canada we didn't have American Girl dolls until I was too old for them. Are they really like that? Because that was clearly the spoof.

Not perfect, but not nearly that bad:  http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/american-girl-diversifies-new-african-american-doll-article-1.2929127

And of course, you can order the personalized dolls with almost every color of skin, eyes, hair and hair texture.

Traveller519

Traveller519

Wait, so you invite me to your children's (presumably 10-12th) birthday party, expecting gifts, and then demand a receipt because what I provided wasn't up to your standards? Fuck that noise! That's really arrogant behavior.

I did enjoy the Ruby's Spades story though. She's been really enjoyable lately with a bit of a softer line on Bow and actually pursuing some of her own stories. Knocking off all the children except Junior was fun. "Jack, you know why." I am missing Pops, though.

  • Love 5
ChromaKelly

ChromaKelly

3 hours ago, Traveller519 said:

Wait, so you invite me to your children's (presumably 10-12th) birthday party, expecting gifts, and then demand a receipt because what I provided wasn't up to your standards? Fuck that noise! That's really arrogant behavior.

I did enjoy the Ruby's Spades story though. She's been really enjoyable lately with a bit of a softer line on Bow and actually pursuing some of her own stories. Knocking off all the children except Junior was fun. "Jack, you know why." I am missing Pops, though.

Yeah, that was kind of cringeworthy. Just return it later. If you need to ask for a receipt, do it after the party.

  • Love 4
Mrs OldManBalls

Mrs OldManBalls

9 hours ago, ExplainItAgain said:

I'm not a huge fan of Ruby, but I loved this storyline for her - the spades tournament was pretty funny. $50 to Forever 21!

Ruby totally bought that cropped denim vest to wear/rub in the other lady's face. We all know it! 

LMAOed when Mr. Stevens ( that's the boss, right?) shut Josh down when he naively attempted to weigh in on the light/dark skin issue. Josh, no! Shush! 

Charlie's brandy snifter? omg. 

  • Love 5
charmed1

charmed1

(edited)

Loved "Doris" and all the spades players. Ruby isn't even as obnoxious as my family when they play spades. I hate card games and only know how to play Tonk because they forced me to. I was dying when Ruby screamed and cursed in the man's face saying "this is my house!" and the slow camera reveals that she's in church.

I can relate to the doll thing because my mom absolutely refused to allow a white or non-black doll in our house. I found out later in life, that there were dolls intended as gifts for me, that I never even saw because she threw them away. She was adamant that I was not going to be looking like one of those kids in the Kenneth Clark study. 

I thought the colorism topic could've been an entire episode instead of a B story. However, both stories in the episode brought back memories of my friend and I playing with our brand new barbies on Christmas Day. All her barbies were always white, which I thought was weird as hell. Anyway, I remember her cousin, who was a grown woman at the time, walked in and picked up my doll and said, "why they always make the black dolls black as hell?" Even as a little kid, I felt embarrassed and ashamed for her. 

Edited by charmed1
  • Love 8
ChromaKelly

ChromaKelly

9 hours ago, Boofish said:

I think the receipt thing was just a part of their ongoing cringeworthy relationship with that particular neighbor.  

I would never think to give my white friends daughter a black doll unless it was a doll of an actual person who is black. 

True. There is really no earthly way the neighbor and the Johnsons would even still be on speaking terms.

  • Love 1
Boofish

Boofish

16 hours ago, RedHawk said:

 Count Chocula -- I never realized. 

Ok, Jack knows why he's out but I don't. Is it that he's just a bad player? I really wanted Jack to be a total cardsharp at Spades. I badly want Jack to be awesome at something. 

Jack is a really good dancer/performer :). Unfortunately his talent was marred when the song he chose (by I think Kayne) contained the N word

  • Love 2
attica

attica

On 3/9/2017 at 8:56 AM, Danielg342 said:

"I don't need a toy...I got you."

"...and nun-chucks!"

11 hours ago, Boofish said:

I would never think to give my white friends daughter a black doll unless it was a doll of an actual person who is black. 

When I was a wee white girl, I got a Julia doll (the Barbiesque thing based on the Diahann Carroll sitcom nurse character) as a present (must've been from mom, but I really don't remember.). Loved that doll, and all her mod outfits. I do not remember any of my friends having black dolls. I never did get nun-chucks, though.

  • Love 4
tennisgurl

tennisgurl

Oh Lord, I'm having so many American Girl flashbacks! So, I got my first American Girl doll when I was a first grader, and my parents got me the one black doll at the time (she was a runaway slave), and I LOVED my Addy doll. I'm white, and grew up in a mostly white community, and I don't really remember why they choose to get me Addy, but they did. Maybe I liked her best because she was the only one with earrings. I collected almost all of the other dolls eventually, but Addy was my favorite. I learned how to braid hair with Addy, I played with her so much I had to send her to a doll hospital because I accidently broke her arm, and when I was 10, I had my birthday at the American Girl Place in Chicago, and I brought Addy to the doll café and walked around with her all day. Actually, while my other dolls are at my parents house (those things were expensive, I'm not throwing them away!), Addy moved across the country with me and is currently on a shelf in my room. I guess what I'm getting at is that I never had to think about the color of my dolls skin, because there were so many dolls with my skin tone, I could have any doll and not think about any greater implications. Plus, Addy really was the best. She had the cutest doll and had the best hair!

Also, all the American Girl dolls have books about them, and the first time I saw my mom cry was when she read the first Addy book, where she and her mom ran north and had to leave Addy's baby sister behind with Addy's grandparents. It was pretty intense.

Anyway, actual episode. Really enjoyed Rainbows crusade, and Diannes reactions. Her hiding behind the Black Dolls Matter sign was great. Plus, added Casey Wilson! She's hilarious and I loved her reactions to all of Bows complaints. I never really thought about young black girls not having dolls of their own skin tone to play with, so I'm glad they talked about it here. Really, I liked all three of the plots, they all got lots of laughs out of me.

The Dre plot was a good one, and I liked Dre realizing that he had his own racial biases, but I kind of wish that it had its own A plot in another episode. That's a pretty big issue to have relegated to the B plot. You know its bad when even Stevens is making fun of Dres race issues! The co worker stuff is still going strong.

  • Love 5
vibeology

vibeology

13 hours ago, Boofish said:

I would never think to give my white friends daughter a black doll unless it was a doll of an actual person who is black. 

One of the few public tantrums I apparently threw as a child was when I wanted my mom to buy me a "Whitney Houston" Barbie when I was two or three. I loved her music. I knew what she looked like and I really wanted a Barbie that looked like her. The answer was no because I had already gotten a treat that day but I apparently threw a fit in the store and had to be taken out. I remember nothing but I know I got over it because I ended up naming one of my white Barbie's Whitney Houston. When I was given a black Barbie, I was already attached to Whitney Houston so that black Barbie became Gloria Estefan. (I was a weird kid.) But I don't think anyone would have bought me a black Barbie if I hadn't made a fuss and I wouldn't have known to make a fuss without Whitney being a huge star.

  • Love 13
luckyroll3

luckyroll3

On 3/9/2017 at 11:04 AM, ChromaKelly said:

Dre's storyline was good too. I've noticed the preference for light-skinned and racially ambiguous actors and models in advertising. Like, that's the way to fill the diversity quotient and feature black-but-not-too-black people.

I have several friends with racially ambiguous kids, all under the age of 6, and they are in high demand as models/actors.  There was a time where every store I walked by that sold kid stuff had one of my friends' kids in the store displays.  One of the parents told me that the agents they work with ask them all the time if they have other children or know of any other kids with similar looks that they can sign.  It's a little crazy.

I only had white Barbies, but I lived on an island as a kid and our selections were quite limited in the 80s.  I never really wanted Barbie though; I preferred Jem and hounded my parents all the time for one (never got it, but my next door neighbor did, SMDH).

I loved the spade game!  I just learned how to play recently (although I knew how to play a similar game called trumps).  My friends and their family take it so damn seriously all the time.  I hate playing with them because when I win (I'm really good at trumps, which makes me decent at spades), they call me a hustler and go crazy.  So that scene had me rolling, especially Junior getting involved in the trash talking with all the old folks. 

  • Love 1
charmed1

charmed1

23 minutes ago, qtpye said:

When I was a kid, there was a type of African American Barbie that came in three skin tones and hair types.  I was excited, because I felt for the first all of my family was represented.  My mother would not get them for me, but I remember they had a Ken type boyfriend named Jamal.

Was it Kenya? "Her curly hair looks great; magic lotion makes it straight. Making Kenya look pretty, makes me feel pretty too!" I was too old for dolls by the time Kenya came around, but I remember the commercials. Kenya's hair looked just like Jackee Harry's. Your mom was doing you a favor lol.

I was never a good mom to baby dolls and the few I had suffered greatly under my care. (Except my cabbage patch doll. My mom had to get on a waiting list for a black one) But my Barbies? My Barbies were freaking fabulous. I'm a pure 80's child. Born in the late 70's; became a teenager in 1990. So my Barbies were at peak Dynasty glamour. Full on Diahann Carol/Diana Ross glitz and ruffles. Even Astronaut Barbie had ruffles. She may have even had shoulder pads. And we knew how good your Barbie was based on the arms. If the arms were outstretched like she was playing beach volleyball, then she was the cheap "My First Barbie" for little girls. She didn't even come with the foldout brochure showing all of Barbies new 1986 wardrobe, horses, houses and cars. She couldn't even drive a car. Hell, she may have even been flat-footed. But if her arms were bent at the elbows, and subtly touched her hip if you bent them slightly, yet effortlessly touched the steering wheel of her silver corvette? Well then, my dear, your Barbie was a Barbie. And even moreso if she had a hole punched in her finger where her giant 80s ring nestled.

I cherished my Barbies because they really were breathtaking. They were beautifully brown with big full lips. I don't know who was designing doll heads over at Mattel at the time, but they were awesome. My Barbies never looked like just a painted black version of white Barbie. They looked like they should be walking in some Mattel version of the Ebony Fashion Fair. And my mom, although she didn't make a lot of money, really enjoyed buying them for me because she never got to have a black doll for herself. That's why I was so appalled at my friends' cousin. How could she criticize my gorgeous "Claudia?" And for being just as "black as hell" as she was.

Colorism is something I will never ever get. It was something I never even knew was a thing until I got to school and learned I was a "skinned." At home, we were just black. I got that. I was cool with that. At school, I was suddenly "light skinned" and that was some bullshit. It still is. I was surprised that Dre's marriage to a biracial woman wasn't used as an argument during his co-workers' "beige rage" accusation.

  • Love 10
qtpye

qtpye

(edited)
Quote

Was it Kenya? "Her curly hair looks great; magic lotion makes it straight. Making Kenya look pretty, makes me feel pretty too!" I was too old for dolls by the time Kenya came around, but I remember the commercials. Kenya's hair looked just like Jackee Harry's.

Lol, you got that ear worm of a jingle now going through my head.

The dolls I was talking about was Shani.  It was the first doll that seemed to say that there is great diversity to being "black" and we all did not look alike.  It was not perfect but felt like progress.

https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/siobhanalbertiana/4834948676/

Edited by qtpye
  • Love 1
jhlipton

jhlipton

On 3/9/2017 at 11:04 AM, ChromaKelly said:

Irony moment - Marsai Martin (Diane) plays an American Girl in the AG movie "Melody". She's really good too, and so is the movie. I think Bow would approve. Although it does have to do with civil rights... at least she's not marching on Selma while named Selma.


There was an interesting discussion about this especially regarding women in the Race and Ethnicity thread in the Everything Else forum on PTV.

That's funny about Marsai Martin.
 

It really was interesting to get different viewpoints.

On 3/9/2017 at 2:22 PM, monakane said:

This afternoon I took a walk to the Marshall's store near my office.  This store has a large African American customer base.  When I walked into the store, there was a large display of dolls.  Every doll was white.  I don't have any children so I wouldn't normally even notice the display.  Bravo Black-ish for talking about this issue.  

Wow.  I was thinking that Bow's plot was 5 or more years out of date (American Girl -- which is what GirlStory seemed to be based on -- has had black dolls for quite some time).  Sad to hear that black dolls are still hard to find.

On 3/9/2017 at 2:37 PM, Driad said:

Skin color and chocolate preference do not correlate in my experience but YMMV. In case anyone cares, my favorite is 72% cacao.

It made a good visual jole...

On 3/10/2017 at 5:21 PM, charmed1 said:

 I was surprised that Dre's marriage to a biracial woman wasn't used as an argument during his co-workers' "beige rage" accusation.

I was thinking that too.

  • Love 1
ItCouldBeWorse

ItCouldBeWorse

(edited)
12 hours ago, jhlipton said:

This afternoon I took a walk to the Marshall's store near my office.  This store has a large African American customer base.  When I walked into the store, there was a large display of dolls.  Every doll was white.  I don't have any children so I wouldn't normally even notice the display.  Bravo Black-ish for talking about this issue.  

Marshall's carries stuff that hasn't sold elsewhere, right? Maybe non-white dolls sell out faster (possibly because fewer are produced) so there are fewer left for Marshall's to sell, or the black ones in this particular Marshall's sold out quickly because of the clientele. Or perhaps Marshall's should pay more attention to demographics!

Edited by ItCouldBeWorse
  • Love 1
BoogieBurns

BoogieBurns

(edited)

I totally could see my parents asking for the receipt on a white doll if I had the wrong ratio (~4:1). I also wouldn't have played with it, I just kept them so my little cousin had something to play with when she came over without ruining the stuff I liked. White dolls were for chumps. 

Edited by BoogieBurns
  • Love 1
jhlipton

jhlipton

(edited)
3 hours ago, Quickbeam said:

As always funny. I see dolls of color everywhere. There is a gorgeous Misty Copeland Barbi in her Firebird costume. Mattel got some crap about her light skin tone until Misty said "well, that's my color". 

FWIW, my wife has two of the "Zodiac Barbies" (Taurus and Aries) from 2004, that are somewhat light, but several of the other dolls are.

 

ETA:  One of my Facebook friends can't find Hispanic dolls on the shelves anywhere (or Hispanic Nativities).  That's just not right!

Edited by jhlipton
  • Love 1
ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

8 hours ago, jhlipton said:

One of my Facebook friends can't find Hispanic dolls on the shelves anywhere (or Hispanic Nativities).  That's just not right!

Finding Latinx or Asian dolls is pretty rare. The few Latinx/Asian Barbies they have are always in some sort of costume because, similar to Selma marching in Selma, we can't just have a non-white doll who wears regular everyday clothes. Usually the best that Latinx/Asian kids can hope for is a brunette doll. My friend's daughter is half-Asian so the American Girl doll that she got just has brown hair because none of them look like her, not even the Truly Me dolls (meanwhile, if you want a blonde doll, there are about a dozen different hairstyles you can choose from).

  • Love 1
After7Only

After7Only

On 3/12/2017 at 6:33 PM, jhlipton said:

Wow.  I was thinking that Bow's plot was 5 or more years out of date (American Girl -- which is what GirlStory seemed to be based on -- has had black dolls for quite some time).  Sad to hear that black dolls are still hard to find.

American girl has black dolls that you could design yourself for quite some time.  But for the longest the only Black doll that came with her own story was Addy, from the slave era.  And then later Melody from the civil rights era.  Black-ish was spot on on this one.  

Black dolls aren't hard to find if you know where to look.  But they aren't readily available everywhere.  You can go to any store that sells toys and find a white doll.  the same is not true for Black/Latina/Asian dolls.  

  • Love 4
Court

Court

Target's version of American Girl has 3-4 black dolls. There are many more white options. I've never looked at their stories, though.

I found trying to find a black baby doll difficult a few years ago. It was for a friend's daughter and there was only one but several white baby dolls. I haven't looked for one since then so I would hope it has gotten better. 

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