From Amos 'n' Andy to Nat King Cole, from Roots to The Cosby Show, black people have played many roles on primetime television. Brilliantly weaving clips from classic TV shows with commentary from TV producers, black actors and scholars, Marlon Riggs blends humor, insight, and thoughtful analysis to explore the evolution of black/white relations as reflected by America's favorite addiction.
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Marlon Riggs returns to the ideas presented in ETHNIC NOTIONS with a more concentrated lens, choosing instead to shine a spotlight on the role of the anti-black stereotype in mainstream American television. With the evolution of this representation and what it has come to signify for American culture as a whole, how it acts as mirror to the current psyche at any given time based on both the general response and what was deemed acceptable for primetime audiences in the first place.
One thread that runs throughout is the constant reframing of American history via the roles that were considered palatable for the Black community to play in a way that would not make White America uncomfortable. Initially, we are…
"All roles are dangerous, the world tends to trap you" -James Baldwin
Representation is complicated.
Listen to Marlon Riggs and this impressive cast of experts explain it. In 1992 Riggs made what I find to be a really insightful and informative documentary about black character types in television from its onset through the early 1990s. Topics include: the limits of television in creating social change, problems and positives regarding famous black television shows, assimilationist vs pluralist approaches to television, and the problems with white producers and writers on black shows. The analysis is straightforward but impactful and the film doesn't offer easy answers but presents tough questions that must be considered if we want a more equitable society.
Yes, this is interesting.
Still mulling this one over. Was moved and challenged by the exploration of black identity on television and what was pushed aside for the sake of “progress”. Heartily recommend for its incisive commentary and challenging worldview.
Although not as engaging or all-encompassing as Ethnic Notions, Color Adjustment is just as informative. This time, Marlon Riggs specifically examines the ways in which Black people have been portrayed on television since it’s inception in the early 1950’s. One thing I have noticed as I make my way through Riggs’ body of work is how ahead of his time he was, and how much his works hold up today. In this case, this fact can be attributed to the unfortunately slow progress of racial depictions in media, as well as the political and social ideals attributed to Black people in America overall. Here, Riggs shows the lack of proper representation of Black life in media through a series of close…
Feels like it'd do really well if watched back to back with Spike Lee's Bamboozled, especially when you're coming to consider the ways in which Marlon Riggs is interrogating the ways in which African-American portrayals in media have been sanitized for the sake of the appeal of a white audience when you're coming to consider the standards that were set by most shows that were at the peak of their prime as shown in here. But what makes Marlon Riggs's perspective so special especially in the case of Color Adjustment comes clear from how it engages with the way black audiences have seen themselves on screen, and how it forms what Riggs shows here.
I need to watch more of Riggs's films soon, because he's not like most other documentary filmmakers that I can name.
Like Ethnic Notions before it, Color Adjustment is another of Marlon Riggs' striking studies of Black images in American media, this time specifically observing the previous forty-plus years of Black performers and characters seen on television. Narrated by Ruby Dee, Riggs' film chronicles the cultural impact of numerous shows and mini-series, including Amos 'n' Andy, Beulah, The Nat King Cole Show, East Side/West Side, I Spy, Julia, All in the Family, Good Times, The Jeffersons, Roots, The Cosby Show and the short-lived dramedy Frank's Place, the analysis of which is supported by such commentators as Henry Louis Gates Jr., Esther Rolle, Diahann Carroll, Norman Lear, Steven Bochco and Sheldon Leonard. As with the aforementioned earlier documentary, I admire Riggs' unwavering…
This documentary came out in 1992, yet the trend has only continued. The way African Americans are represented on TV has progressed, and the film gives credit to these steps forward, yet there's always little things in it to keep it from moving forward at the rate it should. The unconscious bias of white producers usually anchors too much progression. Whether it's Good Times needing to show a goofy buffoon stereotype with certain characters to soften the blow of respect demanded from white audiences of poorer black characters, to the Cosbys only getting the respect deserved when a black family is shown to fulfill the American dream and buy into Reaganism 100%, Color Adjustment is a very enlightening film that could have come out today and hold the same point.
Color Adjustment is a powerful assessment of how Blacks were portrayed on American television up until 1992. Producer/director/writer Marlon Riggs would pass away just two years later from AIDS. Definitely check it out.
Spine #1082 as part of The Signifyin’ Works of Marlon Riggs
Criterion Collection
also available to watch on: Kanopy
Loved this - especially as someone very interested in media in the 20th century, and as someone who knows very little about television beyond just knowing the names of the most popular shows of the past. So insightful and really exposes how American television as a medium truly is defined by and beholden to capitalism and conservatism, even more than American film. I definitely want to see Ethnic Notions now.
A follow-up work to Ethnic Notions. This is a narrower work, also, Its focus is on televisual representation and it charts a thorough history of it. The focus is always on the issue of narrow representation: when Black individuals are so few and far between on TV, each role takes on an unfair weight. This opens up a lot of perceptive and fair criticism, and this documentary makes us reflect intelligently on what each representation means and what drives it.
The idea towards the end, though it is sewn throughout, is that this is one part of a much wider point. That TV reflects society, even lags behind it, and that there is a hard limit to representational power in…
A really great sequel/spiritual successor to Ethnic Notions. Exploring what Black representation was at this time is really incredible, especially in the nuanced way that Riggs explores it and his willingness to critique someone as big as Bill Cosby for the time. I do think this central critique leads the way for a lot of Black television and film to change and I almost wish Riggs could have seen that change with time.
Because primetime images of us are so rare, each image became precious, and involuntarily bore the burden of representing the race.
Another strong effort from Riggs that fits in well with Ethnic Notions' exploration of black representation in media, this time honed in specifically on the medium of television. Often in conversations concerning representation, as vital now as any era presented here, I find myself wondering the inconsistent level of scrutiny given to similar types of entertainment. Color Adjustment is one of the first pieces of media to discuss this issue while also addressing a couple of key assessments often missed in the discourse. First, that representations of whiteness in media are as mythological and disconnected with reality as black…
