Kenya Barris's "#blackAF".... hits and misses

For the past few weeks, there has been major buzz about the new series in the line up of dramedy hits written by Kenya Barris such as Black-ish, Grown-ish, and Mixed-ish. The Netflix series, #blackAF, has definitely proven to be quite the discussion piece on sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

The show centers on Kenya Barris’s fictional life with his wife played by Rashida Jones, along with their five children.

While there are gags and funny moments to be seen on the show, we also are being shown a very loose type of family structure that is alternative to what we as the audience have become accustomed to. The show also attempts to rationalize everything related to Black people with slavery. While the points are not wrong, the narrative becomes more like a shtick to spout history at us at random points in the show. Some might argue that we as Black people should not need a reason to educate others on our Blackness while others would.

Another high note for the show is the ability for it to make fun of itself and it’s creator. Kenya Barris even goes as far as to call on his fellow colleagues such as Issa Rae, Ava Duvernay, Lena Waithe, and Harry Ratchford, to critique him and their shows and movies.