WAS THE REVOLUTION TELEVISED - PROFESSIONAL CRITICISM ABOUT THE COSBY-SHOW AND THE ESSENTIALIZATION OF BLACK CULTURAL EXPRESSION

This study tracks the normative beliefs about race and race relations that structure the professional commentary about The Cosby Show. These beliefs, articulated by the competing racial discourses of assimilati on and pluralism result in conflicting and contradictory definitions o f race and racial difference that truncate the ability of television's professional critical community to assess the construction of Blackne ss in the series as a cultural statement independent of the White-Amer ican experience.