The Anthony Anderson-led sitcom pokes fun at cultural, racial, and generational nuances, scoring mainstream success in the process.
The pilot episode of Black-ish found Andre Jr. (Marcus Scribner) asking his father, Dre (Anthony Anderson), for a bar mitzvah.
ABC/Adam Taylor
Last year, Anthony Anderson's 12-year-old son came home and made a grand announcement: "Dad," the kid told the 44-year-old actor, "I don't feel black."
Anderson was in disbelief. He couldn't believe he was having this particular conversation with his brown-skinned son. But when he took a quick mental step back, he understood where his boy was coming from. His black experience was different from the 12-year-old black experience that his father had had. Anderson grew up in Compton, California, a South Central Los Angeles neighborhood mostly known for its violent reputation, as heard in 1980s rap lyrics from seminal group NWA.
But his son Nathan — "the only chocolate drop in his grade for three years!" Anderson quipped — didn't know much about that life. Nathan's was an existence of privilege and afforded to him because his father, a Howard University graduate, had successfully navigated a career in Hollywood that paired him with top talent like Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, and Jim Carrey (and with a paycheck unlike what he might have imagined growing up in Compton, which means he, his wife, and their two children get to live better).
"I was trying to dodge a drive-by, trying to dodge gang violence and shoot-outs and fights just for wearing a different color," Anderson told BuzzFeed News of his own childhood.
Smartly, Anderson sat Nathan down and redirected, thinking this was one hell of a teachable moment for his son and, well, himself.
"He comes back and sees my family in the 'hood and he see their struggles. That's not his struggle. I had to let him know … yours is different. But that doesn't lessen who you are. That doesn't make you be less black than the next person because your circumstances are different than what theirs are. He got it."
But his kid wasn't done. He told his dad that he wanted a bar mitzvah for his 13th birthday.
Anderson said he told his son that a bar mitzvah wasn't of their heritage, but he caved in and compromised, throwing him a remixed "Hip-Hop Bro Mitzvah" (Anderson even trademarked the name), complete with white shell-top sneakers, a mural created by a graffiti airbrush artist, a hip-hop dance crew, and two DJs who spun for Nathan's eighth-grade class until 2 a.m.
His son got a celebration that was on par with what his classmates got to have. (And friends declared it was the best bar mitzvah ever!)
That real-life occurrence helped to give life to Black-ish (and also provided a plot for the show's well-received pilot episode) and, most crucially, solidified the stakes of a situational comedy about a well-off black family trying to of keep it real in a world where the president of the United States is black.
"What you're seeing on our show so far, each story has come from a real place, and that's what's resonating with the people," Anderson said. "This is not manufactured."
Getty Images/Rick Rowell
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