Abstract

For the first half of the twentieth century, the portrayal of Black women in entertainment was confined to harmful stereotypes, such as the mammy and the jezebel. Since then, the characterization of Black female characters on primetime television shows in particular has evolved considerably. This research paper asks: how are Black women and Black motherhood portrayed in Black sitcoms? How have these representations changed, if at all, over time? I analyze the characterizations of Clair Huxtable and Rainbow “Bow” Johnson, from The Cosby Show and Black-ish, respectively, to address my questions. I find that both Clair and Bow, especially given their socioeconomic statuses, have helped change the tide in the portrayals of Black women in primetime television for the better. They do so primarily by shedding light on how Black mothers can be successful in their careers while also juggling taking care of their families at home, all while doing it with a dose of humor.

Introduction

For many Black families in real life, mothers or mother figures are seen as a representation of power, influence, and strength. In many representations in the media, however, there are falsehoods around Black families, such as the demonization of Black mothers or the exaggeration that Black fathers are absent. But shows like The Cosby Show and Black-ish challenge these faleshoods because they present examples of two families consisting of upper-middle class, working parents balancing their professions and taking care of their kids. For my case studies, I will be comparing the representations of Black motherhood based on these two Black sitcoms. Rainbow “Bow” Johnson from the ABC sitcom Blackish (portrayed by Tracee Ellis Ross) will be the first case study that I look at. Bow Johnson is a doctor who is part of an upper-middle class family living in the suburbs of California. I will also be analyzing Clair Huxtable from the NBC sitcom The Cosby Show (portrayed by Phylicia Rashad). Clair Huxtable is also part of an upper-middle class family and works as a lawyer. By comparing the portrayals of Bow and Clair, I focus on how race, gender, and class influence their approaches to motherhood from a comedic perspective.

Literature Review

Conceptualizing the black family as an institution, several scholars have analyzed how it is defined and represented on television sitcoms. In the first study, “The Social Construction of the African American Family on Broadcast Television: A Comparative Analysis of The Cosby Show and Blackish,” author David Stamps argues that over time, broadcast television has introduced wider audiences to various images of multigenerational Black families as a way to combat negative stereotypes. For instance, Stamps discusses how for a long time, poorer Black people have been overrepresented in the news and the media in comparison to other socioeconomic groups. As a result, many people have come to understand issues such as welfare and government assistance programs to be predominantly Black issues, despite the fact that White people make up a greater percentage of those who use the aforementioned support programs. With mediums such as scripted television, an opportunity to see more diverse representations of Black families, such as The Cosby Show and Black-ish emerged. The families portrayed in both of these shows consist of a husband-wife pair who parent several kids and share caregiving responsibilities with extended family, such as grandparents. Both families are upper-middle class, where each parent has a high-status career. The Huxtables reside in Brooklyn, while the Johnsons reside in Californian suburbs. What Stamps found in his research is that it is important to consider social construction, especially with how social class and standing of an individual can be correlated with their identities and how they are perceived by society. With The Cosby Show and Black-ish, Stamps argues that the social construction of the Huxtables and the Johnsons portrays a balanced representation of how a Black family living in an affluent neighborhood might live, which may even be the first introduction to Black families in this particular setting for many viewers.

Continuing with this concept, scholars have also analyzed how Black fathers in particular are portrayed within the Black sitcom family dynamic. In “From Good Times to Blackish: Media Portrayals of African American Fathers,” authors Shirley Hill and Janice Kelly focus on how in the media, Black fathers are often portrayed in a very limited fashion, often being subjected to negative stereotypes. One example of a negative stereotype given in the text is of the 1920s radio show The Amos n’ Andy Show, which depicted white stereotypes of Black men being ignorant of their family roles. Hill and Kelly analyze the comparison between Black working class families through shows such as Good Times and Everybody Hates Chris and Black upper-middle class families through shows such as The Cosby Show and Black-ish as a way to answer the question of how Black fathers being represented on television varies based on the social class of the central family. What Hill and Kelly found is that Black sitcoms like The Cosby Show and Black-ish in particular did a good job of representing Black fathers as authoritative parental figures who taken on a hands-on approach to raising their kids, and that both shows represent an image of the American Dream where upper-middle class fathers can work hard in prestigious jobs while also having time to spend at home with their families. At the same time, however, Hill and Kelly’s main critique is that Black sitcoms like these that present Black families as “darker versions of white families” may inadvertently reinforce the narrative that we are living in a post-racial society in the United States.¹ In comparison to the sources that focused on Black women and motherhood, this source focused on the portrayal of Black fathers in the media, which adds another perspective to the understanding of approaches to the portrayal of Black families in popular culture.

Similarly, within Black families, Black women who are mother figures are often seen as the nurturing “anchor” that holds the family together. In “The Meaning of Motherhood in Black Culture and Black Mother-Daughter Relationships,” author Patricia Hill Collins begins by discussing the ways in which Black women’s roles are defined both by Black and white communities. In regard to motherhood, she argues that Black women, whether they are biological mothers or help care for children who they did not birth, what she refers to as “othermother,” is seen as a symbol of power for Black women versus a sign of subordination to the dominant power for white families.² For Black mothers specifically, Collins points out that in the Black community, the boundaries that separate the roles of biological mothers from “othermothers” can be fluid and change because biological mothers and othermothers often share maternal responsibilities. The way in which I will use this source is to get a better understanding of the symbolism of motherhood not only for Black women but also within the larger Black community as a way to understand the foundations that people draw from when deciding how to portray Black motherhood in movies and television.

On the other hand, with regard to their portrayal on screen, there are some tropes of Black female characters that aren’t often scene portrayed that have been emerging over recent years. Authors Kimberly Moffitt and Tammy Sanders Henderson examine the concept of the “Awkward Black Girl” in comedies in the book The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Communication. An “Awkward Black Girl” can be defined as a Black female character who is portrayed to struggle (to some degree and in various ways) with navigating her identities of being a Black woman and also being awkward.³ One example of an Awkward Black Girl that Moffitt and Henderson focus on is Rainbow “Bow” Johnson from the ABC sitcom Black-ish, and the authors discuss how some of the ways that Bow’s awkwardness at times is shown include her facial expressions as a way to highlight her moments of surprise and disbelief, and how Bow can come across as socially awkward. This source not only helps me to get a better understanding of Bow’s personality as portrayed on Black-ish, but also to helps me to get a better understanding of how the “Awkward Black Girl” can provide a different perspective to how Black mothers can be portrayed in television, especially through a medium like a sitcom.

The rise of the “Awkward Black Girl” trope in the media is one of the more recent additions to an ever-changing scope of how Black female characters are brought to life on screen. In his article “Mammies and Matriarchs: Tracing Images of the Black Female in Popular Culture 1950s to Present,” author Christopher J. P. Sewell analyzes the evolution of how Black women have been portrayed in popular culture, beginning from the 1950s to the present. One of the examples that Sewell focuses on is Clair Huxtable from The Cosby Show, as he explains how the portrayal of Clair Huxtable looks towards the future upward mobility of the pop culture images of Black women. Sewell describes Clair as being a well-dressed lawyer who’s life can be seen as an inversion of the mammy-matriarch stereotype that many Black women characters have historically often been portrayed to fall into. This source will help my provides me with a sense of how Clair Huxtable’s portrayal on The Cosby Show helped further along a change in the ways in which Black mothers can be portrayed with more dimension in entertainment.

Methods and Data

I analyzed the first four episodes of the pilot and second seasons of both Black-ish and The Cosby Show. For both Bow Johnson and Clair Huxtable, I have several points of analysis. First, given that both of them are part of upper-middle class families, I will analyze aspects of the show that are representative of their class standing, such as how they are described to be dressed and the neighborhoods that both of them live in. Secondly, I will analyze how both of their personalities are portrayed through their interactions in their professional settings (with Bow being a doctor and Clair being a lawyer). This will help me gauge how the intersections of race, gender, and class, given that they both work in prestigious fields, impact their relationships with their colleagues as portrayed on screen. Likewise, I will also analyze how their personalities are portrayed through their interactions at home with different family members and how they fit into the overall family dynamic on their shows.

Findings

My first finding is that both Clair Huxtable and Rainbow Johnson’s characterizations as Black mothers on television (particularly upper-middle class mothers) have contributed to the divergence away from harmful stereotypes about Black women in the media. Likewise, both shows provide a representation of what working Black mothers who juggle their professional lives and their family lives can look like (while keeping in mind that social standing does play a factor in all of this as well). Additionally, Clair Huxtable and Bow Johnson’s characters are important because seeing both of their professional lives and their family lives adds a layer of agency to both Clair and Bow’s characters, in terms of both women being able to fiercely hold their own and express themselves as authoritative figures in their families. Regardless of the fact that it is their husbands that are the central characters of their respective shows, the women are shown to be characters with their own multidimensional portrayals: mothers both working demanding jobs and spending time with their kids, while also shown to have humorous, vibrant, and no-nonsense personalities.

Secondly, being that both shows are sitcoms, the ways in which Black motherhood is portrayed are much more lighthearted and humorous than in other genres. In The Cosby Show, Clair is shown to be very sarcastic and humorous in a loving way towards her family members, particularly when talking to her husband Cliff (Bill Cosby). Similarly, in Black-ish, Bow is also shown to be sarcastic when interacting with her family members, although with her interactions with her husband Dre (Anthony Anderson), Bow is portrayed to show a more “you’ve got to be kidding” kind of exasperated when dealing with Dre’s antics. Facial expressions also play a more subtle yet important part throughout both shows as a way to emphasize the humor in Clair and Bow’s relationships to their families. Clair often gives her iconic look to her family members when they were speaking or acting foolishly. Bow can also come across as a little socially awkward throughout the show, whether it be when she is interacting with people outside of her family or when she is trying to be more of a “cool mom” to impress her kids. Bow’s facial expressions demonstrate this social awkwardness by showing her surprise, disbelief, and embarrassment in certain situations.

With the characterization of Clair specifically, the episodes in the first season portray her as a no-nonsense mother who was not afraid to speak her mind. Clair is also shown as wanting the best for her kids, such as in the scene during breakfast in the pilot episode where she is discussing the grades her kids get at school. Clair has also mentioned the desire and importance of taking time to relax and wind down without having to take care of the kids. She states how she “was a beautiful woman once, before the children came” at the end of the pilot episode.⁴ Similarly, the end of each episode shows her winding down with Cliff as they get ready for bed and talk to each other at the end of a long day, which gives a good representation of how Black motherhood can be stressful, and it is important to take time to destress. Interestingly enough, in terms of her work as a lawyer, Clair is actually shown more often in the home setting, either taking care of the kids or getting ready to leave for work in the mornings; there aren’t many times throughout the show where the audience is actually able to see Clair working in person as a lawyer.

Lastly, with the characterization of Bow, she is also portrayed to be another no-nonsense mother like Clair. Early on in the show, Bow explicitly expresses her value of being open enough so that her kids feel comfortable coming to her about anything because that was how Bow was raised by her parents. Bow does, however, struggle with this in the beginning when trying to connect with her oldest daughter Zoey (Yara Shahidi). Additionally, similar to Clair, Bow is often shown in the home setting in her scrubs before she actually goes to work, where she is taking care of her kids and getting herself ready to go to work. Bow even mentions to Dre in season 1, episode 4, that she feels that she’s the one that has to balance two jobs—being a mother and a doctor—while Dre only has to worry about his marketing executive position.⁵ 

Discussion

Generally speaking, with sitcoms such as The Cosby Show and Black-ish, these Black families are considered “good examples” because they are upper-middle class households. It is not coincidental that two sitcoms that are seen as setting a “good example” of what a Black family looks like portrays Black families as nuclear and of higher social and financial standing. This concept of “goodness,” however, may potentially play into a larger idea of respectability politics by primarily associating a “good example” of a Black family in media with a family of high socioeconomic status consisting of two heterosexual, married parents, both of whom are explicitly shown to be present and involved in their kids’ lives. Black families come in all different structures, functionalities, and financial backgrounds, so while the examples shown in The Cosby Show and Black-ish are great examples of what a Black family dynamic could look like, it would also be important to discuss how the concept of “goodness” limits what a “good” Black family dynamic can and cannot look like.

Another interesting part of my findings are the differences in how both sets of families approached the topic of race, especially given the time periods in which the shows aired. With The Cosby Show, which aired in the 1980s, although it was a refreshing representation to see a Black family represented positively on screen, the subject of race wasn’t at the forefront of the show. On the other hand, with Black-ish, many episodes of the show include explicit discussions about race and racism. Given that Black-ish debuted during a specific social and political climate, such as through the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and during the second term of the Obama presidency, Black-ish is able to more casually (for lack of a better word) centralize discussions about race relations in the show, whereas it might not have been as socially and politically acceptable for The Cosby Show to do.

Additionally, with the representation of one mother as a lawyer and one as a doctor, both shows give audiences that have watched these shows a chance to see Black women in prestigious professional fields that, in the real world, they are often underrepresented. According to various sources, Black women only represent anywhere from 2 to 5 percent of all doctors in the United States, while with lawyers—which is also a field where women are still in the minority—Black women make up on 5 percent practicing in the United States. Although audiences don’t often get to see either Clair or Bow in their physical place of work, the images of them getting ready to go to work (such as Bow being shown in her scrubs) and their explicit discussions about their professions throughout the show contributes to this representation of Black working mothers in underrepresented professional fields. That being said, the representations of Bow and Clair as Black mothers is only one example of what Black motherhood could look like, particularly due to their socioeconomic status. In reality, many Black mothers struggle with juggling their careers and their family lives, especially depending on the demands of their careers and how this intersects with differences in family structure (i.e. single motherhood or divorced parenting) and lower socioeconomic status.

Lastly, for both Clair and Bow fashion is a key marker of their social and financial standing. Both Clair and Bow were often shown wearing pastel-colored clothing, which reflects how the color of clothing can often be an element that represents specific class categories. Clair is was often shown wearing brightly colored skirt suits, most likely representing what she wore to work. At the end of each episode, Clair is almost exclusively shown wearing satin pajama sets as nightwear as well. Likewise, Bow is also shown wearing more flowy, bohemian-style clothing. Bow is often shown wearing items such as satin blouses, printed jumpsuits, and of course, her scrubs, to represent how she is a doctor. 

Conclusion

Over the last few decades, the portrayals of Black women on screen have seen a shift in a refreshing positive direction. Clair Huxtable and Bow Johnson, without a doubt, contributed to the continuation of positive representations of Black women on television. Both Clair and Bow give depictions of multidimensional Black mothers who are able to balance their careers with taking care of their families, all while doing it in a loving and amusing manner. That being said, there are possible negative implications of these portrayals, as they may inadvertently cause stress to Black mothers who are trying their best to provide for their families and achieve their own goals but don’t have the access to the same resources or financial stability. For future work, my research about Black motherhood in The Cosby Show and Black-ish could set a foundation for continuing to look at the portrayals of Black motherhood in entertainment, whether it be in comparison to other sitcoms, other television shows of other genres or to switch to the portrayal in movies. It would also be interesting to continue to look at the intersection of Blackness, womanhood, and socioeconomic status in these comparisons, and maybe to compare either the portrayals of Clair or Bow to representations of Black women of other class standings in television shows.

1. Sirley A. Hill, “From ‘Good Times’ to ‘Blackish’: Media Portrayals of African American Fathers,” Deconstructing Dads: Changing Images of Fathers in Popular Culture, edited by Janice Kelly (Lexington Books, 2015), 205.
2. Patricia Hill Collins, “The Meaning of Motherhood in Black Culture and Black Mother-Daughter Relationships,” Sage, vol. 4, no. 2 (1987), 3.
3. Kimberly Moffitt and Tammy Sanders Henderson, “Interrogating the Awkward Black Girl: Beyond controlling images of Black women in televised comedy,” The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Communication, edited by Marnel Niles Goins et al. (Routledge, 2020).
4. The Cosby Show, season 1, aired September 20, 1984 on NBC.
5. Black-ish, “Crazy Mom,” season 1, episode 4, aired October 15, 2014 on ABC.