All in the Family

“All in the Family” Paper

9/19/2013

One would like to believe that racism no longer exists, but this is a far cry from the truth. Just look at the uproar over the George Zimmerman Trial. It’s seems that every time issues of race and ethnicity arise, racism rears its ugly head; the Zimmerman trial coverage can be used as an example. One could tune into any of the popular news affiliates there would be two different opinions. There is the liberal opinion and then there is the conservative view of the trial from which most Black’s side with liberals, and with White Americans siding with the latter; this same occurrence held true with the O.J Simpson Trial. Although, American society has jumped leaps and bounds since the days of Jim Crow laws and segregated schooling there is still a ways to go, but in order to travel those extra lengths needed to end racism there has to be more individuals like Norman Lear, the producer of the controversial sitcom of the 1970s entitled “All in the Family”. Lear was brave enough to tackle issues of race, gender, and sexuality at a time when other television productions evaded such serious social issues all together. Lear intended to teach lessons in bias through satirical narrative using his characters of opposing sides mirroring our societal divide of liberal verses conservative perspective. “All in the Family” aired in 1971 themed around a working class male with conservative views that broadcasted episodes dealing in issues of abortion, race, homosexuality, women’s liberation, rape, and politics. The show featured a popular character by Archie Bunker that many experienced a love-hate relationship throughout the shows life. Bunker was a conservative, super patriotic working-class American with an opinion that always differed from the other characters on the show especially his son-in law Mike and daughter Gloria. Mike the “antagonist” of the show played a liberal position on sundry issues of the day. “All in the Family” ignited discussions of race by bringing stereotypes and issues of ethnicity to the forefront of society through the use of characters that mimicked cultures in society, which in turn made America not only laugh at our differences but also realize the ignorance behind hating one another for those differences.

There have been a number of receptive studies done on the framework of the popular show “All in the Family” in attempts to understand the polysemic views of its audience, and to understand the ways in which the audience makes sense of the content being thrust upon them. According to Baran and Davis the two opposing interpretations can be