New T.V. Comedy 'Black-ish' a push for Post-Raciality on Television?

     Post-raciality has been a topic that has gotten a lot of attention over the past few years with many Americans feeling like race is no longer an issue in the United States. With the United States electing an African American president, many Americans felt like this was the final step for America in getting over its brutal racial past. While the amount of hate crimes and lynchings have gone down considerably since the middle of 20th century, there is still a wide array of racism going on in this country. The Caucasian male is privileged in our society with things you would not normally think of. From racial profiling to career advancements the white man has privilege, but with all this knowledge on race and privilege, we still strive to be a colorblind society. A society that sees not the color of a mans skin but everything else. I feel this kind of mentality can and will lead to a world where everyone is the same, your color may differ, but everyone will act the same as individuals and as a community, losing much of the cultural identity we have come to love and know.
    While being in the United States alone can strip a family or generation of their cultural identity pretty quickly, the importance of the cultural identity is essential to living in a truly copacetic world. My example of this "post-racial" ideology in the media this week is a television show, called 'Black-ish', that premiered recently. The show is about an African American family that acts like a white family. The theme of the show is the father of the show is trying to find his family a cultural identity. Every episode is based on the main character, the father, dealing with circumstances in life in "black" ways and "white ways". This kind of television show presents to its audience (which is unclear) this idea of post-raciality.  The show gives the feeling that there is not a "black" way or "white" way to deal with something, that our ways have become one.
    This type of media portrayal of the African American community is trying to push forth the idea that race is a thing of the past and we just all get along now. This is not true, there is still a big racism problem in our ideologies and institutions. I agree with director Tim Wise when he says we need to look at the concept of race with a direct approach to changing our ways of thinking. We need to live in a community that is color conscious, which is when a population seeks to acknowledge and understand differences of race. Only then will we be able to stop talking about race and privilege.