Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:

GENDER, RACE, CLASS AND THE (MYTH OF THE) AMERICAN DREAM

Please don't use complicated language. You should write the essay based on the outline that has been written before. I uploaded it as an additional material. Here is the prompt for the essay. I also followed that prompt for the outline.

Opt A: Sociologist Herman Gray writes that “in terms of television constructions of blackness, The Cosby Show is culturally significant because of the productive space it cleared and the aesthetic constructions of black cultural style it enabled.” Write an essay exploring issues of race and American family values in contemporary television. Consider the ways in which the media shapes our understanding of race and ethnic representation. 

Opt B: More broadly, how is race constructed in American Media? As with the above, think about the ways in which portrayals of race are tied in with notions of power, identity (race, socio-economic status, sexual orientation), and personal voice.

Consider the following questions: Have representations of race on television (or in media more broadly) significantly changed? How so? To what extent do media representations of African American success and failure shift our understanding of racial inequality? Why does Gray suggest that television programs like The Cosby Show provide a false sense of middle class utopia in African American culture? Does this show and others like it undermine contemporary race relations?