Critiquing Reality-Based Televisual Black Fatherhood: A Critical Analysis of<i>Run's House</i>and<i>Snoop Dogg's Father Hood</i>

Abstract

In the 1980s, The Cosby Show broke all molds for the negative representation of Black people in media by supplanting them with an upper middle-class family whose forays into high culture and familial values served to dignify Blackness on television. Two decades later, at least two Black families have emerged on reality television shows, both of which provide a platform from which to examine the televisual construction of Black fatherhood years after Cosby's debut. Run's House and Snoop Dogg's Father Hood (Father Hood), both shows based on “real” Black families, can be interpreted in comparison and contrast to Cosby's version of upper-middle class Black fatherhood to (a) investigate themes of Black fatherhood in a variety of positive forms while challenging limited images of Black fathers on television; and (b) revive debates from Jhally and Lewis’ book Enlightened Racism as the families in the reality shows simultaneously corroborate, shift away from and flaunt issues of race and class while still fostering a strong identification with viewers.