I am a woman of color, and remember watching the Amos & Andy Show as a young child. The adults in my family thought the characters were funny and seemed to enjoy the show. I did not see the humor in the characters and thought they were plain stupid. I did not see the harm in the show, as these characters were unlike anyone I knew and it did not occur to me that they supposedly represented the whole population of 'colored people' at all! I do not know who decided that the people of color needed spokespersons and organizations, that represented the whole population of 'colored people' or who decided we were colored, Negro, Afro-American, African American, or Black people, for that matter.
In my life time, I have met so-called white, yellow, brown, and even black people who had certain fixed ideas of how 'all' Blacks are supposed to act, think, look, and the degree of education and intelligence that they possess. That's ignorance on their part! Members of a group, such as so-called minority groups, should not have to spend any part of their lives proving to other group members, their value and worth as human beings; yet it happens and happened. As a person or even a group member, individuals cannot allow others to define who they are, and it's a sad thing that that kind of thing had to and has to be battled. It's an interesting point that was made, comparing the 'Honeymooners' to the 'Amos and Andy Show'. I have no doubt that there are and were people who did believe characters in these shows did represent the sub-racial groups to which the characters belonged, however social education, exposure to people of different sub-racial groups, and a love for fellow humans would remedy the majority of these misunderstandings. I use the term sub-racial because we are all of one race - the human race, however somebody(ies) found it necessary to break the human race down in terms of physical characteristics and outward appearances. If people want to watch Amos and Andy, I believe they should and should have been allowed to.
In my life time, I have met so-called white, yellow, brown, and even black people who had certain fixed ideas of how 'all' Blacks are supposed to act, think, look, and the degree of education and intelligence that they possess. That's ignorance on their part! Members of a group, such as so-called minority groups, should not have to spend any part of their lives proving to other group members, their value and worth as human beings; yet it happens and happened. As a person or even a group member, individuals cannot allow others to define who they are, and it's a sad thing that that kind of thing had to and has to be battled. It's an interesting point that was made, comparing the 'Honeymooners' to the 'Amos and Andy Show'. I have no doubt that there are and were people who did believe characters in these shows did represent the sub-racial groups to which the characters belonged, however social education, exposure to people of different sub-racial groups, and a love for fellow humans would remedy the majority of these misunderstandings. I use the term sub-racial because we are all of one race - the human race, however somebody(ies) found it necessary to break the human race down in terms of physical characteristics and outward appearances. If people want to watch Amos and Andy, I believe they should and should have been allowed to.