- What is the American dream according to the film?
The hard core of American dream is if people work hard enough, they will get nice home, delicious food, good-looking car, smart and healthy children, and a happy family. At those time, people were struggled to get comedy performed by black people onto televisions. African Americans were eager to watch one of their own on TV. They hoped that they could be treated equally as white people. They also wished that white people could appreciated those shows as much as they did.
- How does television reinforce this dream according to the film?
At the beginning, African Americans were only allowed to play certain roles like mammies and sambos. Hattie McDaniels is the first African American to win an Oscar for her role in Gone with The Wind. She was famous for her mammy roles. People thought her role had negative effect on society. However, what African American could play in a movie was not decided by African Americans. They could only play roles that were through at them. Hattie McDaniels said she would rather play a mammy rather than be a mammy. As time passed by, there were more and more family comedies played by African Americans. They have normal white family life styles. At late 19th century, they were even allowed to talk about racial problems in the show, which promoted the human right movement.
- What was the difference during the 1960’s portrayals of race relations in America by news and entertainment shows?
In the late 60s, the media forbade liberal thinking producers from putting any other kind of image on televisions except for the happy big black families. The media tried to persuade people that African Americans’ lives were just like, or as bad as, white people’s lives. They tried to prevent African Americans from being in part of any human right movement. The television tried to tell people that race does not matter. African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and whites are all the same. However, African Americans were experiencing unfairness. In a 1960’s news footage, an African American said that he was an educated Americans. He served in the arm. And he was sick of racism against African Americans.
- The film compares the character of J.J. on Good Times to the 19th century minstrels. What is a minstrel show and in what ways did J.J. fit this stereotype?
Minstrel shows were white actors who put on black make-up playing stereotyped African Americans. J.J. was funny, humorous, easy to be scared, childlike, and foolish. J.J. wore similar customs as minstrels. People loved this kind of character, and J.J. stole the show successfully. The character damaged the progress that people had made on racial problems. Though, some people knew that the character had negative effect on the society, this little doubt in their minds didn’t stop them from applauding.
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