Double Consciousness In The Sitcom 'Black-Ish'

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Double Consciousness in Black-ish Situational comedies, or more commonly sitcoms, are traditionally rife with common themes and lessons, as they are made to mimic life in short, nicely packaged thirty-minute episodes. As these sitcoms represent life, they often also depict sociological concepts that are applied to real life. Black-ish is a sitcom that focuses on a modern, middle class black family. In particular, the episode “Switch Hitting” deals with the concept of double consciousness and directly interacts with it. Introduced in his book The Souls of Black Folk, W. E. B. DuBois’ concept of double consciousness states that African-Americans have two selves. He claims that an African-American, in addition to seeing themself as they truly …show more content…

Dre, as a successful black professional contradicts Jay’s stereotypical idea of what an African-American should be. At the beginning of the episode, Dre stands in front of a mirror and says, “It’s been said that black people have a double consciousness. We have our mainstream selves to be in ‘The Man’s’ world and we have our down-home selves for the brothers.” He observes that the switch between a black person’s two selves, that while either employed seamlessly or poorly, must always be …show more content…

In an attempt to win back the account, Dre invites the client back to his house for dinner, where he intends to show how he “keeps it real”. Over the course of the evening Dre’s attempts to display his and his family’ “blackness” backfires as it is revealed to the client that his family does not fit into stereotypical black roles. His eldest children play Dungeons & Dragons, attend Jason Mraz “acoustic jams”, and his youngest children’s heroes are Sarah Palin and Vanilla Ice, who his son calls “The Godfather of Hip Hop. Dre himself eats organic hummus and says “ciao” and his wife makes vegan mac and cheese and collard greens with

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