post-class info

This website will be available at least until the end of September, 2008, and will probably be up until the end of the year. You can also email me with any questions or comments. Thanks for great discussions!

Space Traders info

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has information about Cosmic Slop, the series that featured Space Traders.  The film was based on the short story "The Space Traders," from Derrick Bell's Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism. Below you can watch the first 10 minutes of the 30-minute film.

Space Traders (partial video)

Black political leadership

The New York Times has posted a long article on Black political leadership: "Is Obama the End of Black Politics?" The article can also be downloaded.

video search sites

The following sites are good for searching for TV shows by Black comics:

• YouTube


• Truveo


• Metacafe


• Hulu

Chappelle's Show: More Reparations 2003

Chappelle's Show: Reparations 2003

The Boondocks: Return of the King

Find more videos like this on www.truveo.com.

Richard Pryor Show: Egypt, 1909

August 20 class

In the August 20 class (tomorrow!) we'll have time to view videos that participants bring in. Choose short (5 minutes or so) skits or sections.

August 13 videos

In posts below are some of the videos shown in class (I could not find online versions of all). Note that The Flip Wilson Show skit was one that I would have shown at the of class if time had permitted.

See also the post about an optional reading.

Richard Pryor Show: 40th President

Richard Pryor Show: Star Wars

Flip Wilson Show: Geraldine interviewed by David Frost

Chappelle's Show: Black Bush

optional reading

Tonight I read aloud the first paragraph from Bambi Haggins' Laughing Mad. I've posted all of chapter 1 as an optional reading. NOTE: this is a large file, so it may take some time to download.

Chappelle on Obama

At the end of the August 6 class a question was posed about Barack Obama's racial identity. If Dave Chappelle were still doing Chappelle's Show, how would he characterize Obama's identity? More specifically, what type of skit would he produce?

P.S. See other August 6 posts below for the "Racial Draft" skit, and a portion of "White People Dancing." I could not find the complete WPD sketch online; if anyone else can let me know!

Chappelle's Show: White People Dancing (partial clip)

Chappelle's Show: Racial Draft

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

optional readings

For more information about the "sociological imagination," check out an excerpt from C. Wright Mills' book The Sociological Imagination.

You may also be interested in a Star-Tribune article about movie stereotypes.  These same stereotypes also appear in TV, don't they?

syllabus

The course syllabus can be downloaded by clicking here.

welcome!

Welcome to the course site for "Your Television Will Be Colorized: Black TV Comics' Riffs on Race," a class in the August 2008 session of The People's University at the Minneapolis Central Library. Please feel free to comment on any of the posts on this site.