Jerome is the “New” Black
Constantly, major television shows enforce cultural norms through stereotypes. These shows create an environment that aligns with the typical cultural norms of society. Family guy is similar in this way. This show is a comedy that’s goal is to make their viewers laugh. They attempt to do this by making racial, gender, and other inappropriate jokes. However, sometimes these jokes can reinforce cultural norms through stereotypes. In the episode “Jerome is the New Black”, Family Guy reinforces the stereotypical black, cool guy through the character Jerome.
Appearance wise, all stereotypical black men have an afro, deep voice, wear a chain, and are generally just cool. In the Family Guy episode, Jerome is no exception and shares all of these characteristics. The episode begins with a group of guys in a bar. They talk about how they want a new member of their group because one guy, who happened to be black, moved away. However, the decide to make their choice about race. One of the members of the group and main character of the show, Peter Griffin says “You know guys, what we need is a black guy”. Quagmire, another member of the group, responds, “Yea, that was the best thing about him. Without a black guy we’re just a bunch of boring white guys”. They’re implying that the man who was in their group before was only cool because he was black and that there could not be a cool, white guy because only black guys are cool. Hereby, reinforcing the cultural norm that black guys are meant to be cool, smooth talking men. Moving on, the guys finally find their stereotypical black guy who wants to be part of their group. His name is Jerome and he is a tall, black man with a deep voice, large afro, and he wears a gold chain, hitting on all the appearance factors of the stereotypical black man. This leaves the viewer believing that most black guys are both cool and check out with all the appearance factors of the stereotypical black guy. This can be demeaning to black men because obviously not all black guys are the same or like this. On the other hand this could even be demaing towards white males as well because the guys explain they need a black guy so that their group will be cool again and a white guy won’t be able to do that. A black man is a necessity for that job.
Despite portraying the stereotypical black guy on television and brainwashing their viewers in to believing that all black guys are like that, the creators of their show go out of their way to make bad comments about black men. For example, Peter decides to introduce Jerome to his wife so he walks him inside. His wife is holding their sleeping baby, Stewie, and as they’re talking, Stewie wakes up, sees Jerome, and immediately asks “I was kind of out of it. Are we being robbed?” Although Jerome is good friends with Peter and his family, they still make racist and stereotypical insinuations about him. Stewie is suggesting that Jerome is violent or attempting to steal from them because he assumes that the cultural norm of all black men doing illegal and violent things is true. Stewie could be assuming this because the Griffins don’t have black people in their white, suburban very often or just to make a racist, stereotypical joke. This sends a message that all or most black men are violent or do illegal things. There is no cultural transmission in this episode whatsoever.
Despite the show Family Guy being a comedy, they send the message that personality wise, all black men are violent or do illegal things, yet they’re also cool. Appearance wise, they send the message that all black men have deep, smooth voices, have afros, and wear gold chains. This forces the viewers of the show, who are typically very impressionato teenagers, to believe that black men match up with all the stereotypes Family Guy insinuated. Although it sometimes looks at Jerome in a positive light by saying he’s cool, it does so by demeaning multiple races. This could be demeaning to black people because not all black people are like that and/or want to be viewed that way. It could be also demeaning to white people because Family Guy inferred that if you don’t have a black man in your group of friends, your group isn’t cool and it is a bunch of “boring, white guys”. In every instance they imply something about Jerome’s race, they manage to break down or hurt one or more groups of people. In order to encourage progressive cultural transmissions, tv shows needs to not promote stereotypes about any group and not group all people of that race into one personality because that affects their viewers in a negative way. Especially since Family Guy’s viewers are typically impressionable teenagers. People will often not consciously recognize the unpleasant values being sent, but it will affect how they think and how society thinks.
