Talk:Amos 'n' Andy
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[edit] question
What is this supposed to mean: "While African American advocacy groups had protested the radio show on several occasions, progressive groups such as the NAACP were a primary factor in getting the TV show cancelled." What is the NAACP, other than an advocacy group for African-Americans?
- To me, a number of parts of the article read as if they were written by someone who has the opinion that A&A is not racist, and made an attempt to write NPOV but didn't quite succeed.
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- I'll take my lumps for that sentence from back in the day (posted w/o an account); the point I was going for was that the protests of the radio show didn't have anywhere near the effect that the TV protests did. Chalk up the ambiguity to my clumsy self-editing on the day, but it's easy enough to fix. And for the record, I wasn't trying to say that A&A weren't racist, just that they were much more benign than other racially-based elements of pop culture from the 20s and 30s. Enwilson 16:31, 20 September 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Lead description
I largely reverted to an earlier version of the first paragraph from the recent one claiming it to be "the first original series created for radio", which it certainly was not. -- Infrogmation 17:45, 5 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] What happened?
In three days time, a tremendous amount of research has been eliminated from this article. Is there some explanation? Pepso 15:52, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
- I restored the article to 6 June 2006. Indeed, much good information was eliminated, with no justification or even explanation. — Walloon 16:32, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Tv series
I'd like to make a seperate and deatiled page for the TV series. Would any object to that?MrBlondNYC 00:04, 30 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Ridiculous
Nowhere in the entire article do the words racist or racism appear,when clearly at least the radio version of the show in its earliest incarnations was a version of minstrel show. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.128.108.185 (talk) 01:15, 20 March 2008 (UTC)
You can rework that opening text to further emphasize this show was within the archetype racist blackface theme used up until the civil rights movement. See Wikipedia page on Blackface :
"Blackface featured prominently in film at least into the 1930s, and the "aural blackface" of the Amos 'n' Andy radio show lasted into the 1950s.[29] Meanwhile, amateur blackface minstrel shows continued to be common at least into the 1950s."
It references Amos & Andy.
Leon Spencer, Animis Opibusque Parati 08:06, 13 April 2008 (UTC)
I reworked the opening sentence as follows with references to existing Wikipedia pages:
"Amos 'n' Andy was a situation comedy formed out of the archetype of American racism — that of the odd voiced moronic darky or coon - and popular in the United States from the 1920s through the 1950s. "
Leon Spencer, Animis Opibusque Parati 08:49, 13 April 2008 (UTC)
- Hi, Leon. For one thing, I don't think I should have just deleted your sentence - it's legitimate. But I DON'T think it belongs in the opening sentence. The opening should just say it was a situation comedy, and later in the article, explore it's a being formed out of the minstrel show, and racist archetypes. In fact, I think that should be expanded, and a separate section. But the opening sentence should be bare-bones, "just the facts."Carlo (talk) 00:58, 14 April 2008 (UTC)
- Hello Carlo. Thank you. However, the fact is Amos 'n' Andy was blackface. We can reword the opening sentence to exclude whether or not it was racial. But the fact is it was a comedy based on black racial archetypes voiced by white actors depicting the star characters - two black men.
- I will reword that sentence to reach some middle ground and eliminate the word racism. -Leon Spencer, Animis Opibusque Parati 03:01, 14 April 2008 (UTC)
- Reworded as follows:
- "Amos 'n' Andy was a situation comedy based on racial archetypes of African-Americans and popular in the United States from the 1920s through the 1950s."
- -Leon Spencer, Animis Opibusque Parati 03:10, 14 April 2008 (UTC)
[edit] DO NOT OVERWRITE EDITS Without Noting Discussion
Do not overwrite edits without noting discussion. Whether Amos 'n' Andy was blackface is not a 'point of view'. It was white actors imitating black men using odd voice characters at a time in American history when such acts were popular. That is the definition of blackface and an Archetype.
Whether or not this description 'belongs' in the first line is a 'point of view' and lacks standing cosidering that archetype was the basis of the show. It simply wasn't just a radio then television show. It was blackface.
Leon Spencer, Animis Opibusque Parati 00:43, 14 April 2008 (UTC)
And certainly if the archetype illustration by J.J. Gould of Amos and Andy because at the top of the page, the opening sentence representing the show in a similar manner is appropriate:
"Amos 'n' Andy was a situation comedy formed out of an archetype of American racism — that of the odd voiced moronic darky or coon - and popular in the United States from the 1920s through the 1950s."
There was NO more to Amos 'n' Andy. And if is perceived to have been more, such perception does not override the basis on which the show was formed - an African-American archetype - Blackface
Leon Spencer, Animis Opibusque Parati 00:50, 14 April 2008 (UTC)
