Enlightened Racism Book

	List of Tables
	Preface
	Acknowledgments
1	Introducing The Cosby Show	1
	Cosby: The Case For	3
	Cosby: The Case Against	6
	Asking the Audience	8
	Synopsis of The Cosby Show Episode Shown to Respondents	12
2	Television and Reality: How Real Is The Cosby Show?	15
	Talking About Reality	17
	The Absence and Presence of Class	23
	Cosby Contradictions	27
	The World According to Cosby	30
3	The Success of Cosby	35
	White Viewers and Popularity: The Same and Different	36
	"They're Things That Happen Day by Day"	38
	"It Has That Kind of Airbrushed Quality About It"	41
	"It's Always Family Matters"	43
	"The Cosby Show's Black, and That Fits"	46
	Black Viewers and Popularity: "Thank You, Dr. Cosby, for Giving Us Back Ourselves"	48
	"When I Look at Them, I Look at Us"	50
	"What Kind of Question Is That for Black Folk?"	53
	Looking on the Bright Side	56
4	Black Experience: Images, Illusions, and Social Class	57
	Black Images: The Case of the Disappearing Black Working Class	58
	Black Reality: The Permanent Underclass and Increasing Poverty	61
	The Race-Class Nexus	64
	Class and Social Mobility	68
5	Class and the Myth of the American Dream	71
	Misrepresentations and Misconceptions	71
	Television and the "American Dream"	72
	Class Consciousness: The View from Above	75
	Class Consciousness: The View from Below	78
	The Displacement of Class onto Race	81
	Stereotyping: The Limits of Conventional Thinking	83
	The Fictional Creation of a Racially Just Society	86
6	White Responses: The Emergence of "Enlightened" Racism	93
	The Insidious Return of Racism	93
	Definitions of Black: Color Versus Culture	95
	The Black and White Cosby Show	98
	Now You See It, Now You Don't	101
	Biology Versus Culture	108
	The Consequences of Classlessness	109
7	Black Responses: The Hollow Images of Success	113
	The Bad News	113
	Race and Class in Black Situation Comedies	117
	Positive Images and the Search for Prosperity	121
	The Battle for Respect	124
	Clinging to the American Dream	127
8	Conclusion: Unpopular Messages in an Age of Popularity	131
	Affirming Inaction in White Viewers	135
	Rethinking Stereotypes	138
	Moving Beyond the American Dream	139
	References	145
	About the Book and Authors	147
	Index	149