Clair Huxtable gets on Keke Palmer's nerves, and women who think like Keke get on mine
Reality TV depictions do not reflect all black women
I adore Keke Palmer! But what should’ve been a fun, light-hearted interview with the actress and KeyTV creator on “The Terrell Show” left me gritting my teeth and looking on in disappointment, once again feeling like some black women would have to give the same repetitive argument we’ve been giving for decades:
There are African-American women attorneys and lawyers, so no, Clair Huxtable’s profession is not unrealistic. (I interviewed countless numbers in this CBS series, one of which represented me when I bought a home. My Realtor was a black woman too.)
There are black women who marry doctors, so no, this is not a foreign concept. (And yes, it happened before “Married to Medicine.”)
There are upper, middle-class women; Bill Cosby didn’t invent them. (They didn’t all disappear like fairy dust after Black Wall Street was tragically destroyed.)
Not all black women resort to throwing drinks; calling each other “bitches/heaux/hos” to make a point; and yes, we can still get you together without nonstop cursing.
Well-read people know the term “uppity” historically has racist connotations that white people have used to frown upon black people who dared to demand equality.
The term “bourgeoisie” simply means upper, middle class. It’s a salary. Making a sizable amount of money does not automatically mean you think you’re holier than thou.
But this argument has been made over and over again. What more could I say that hasn’t already been said about the wife and mother on “The Cosby Show”? There have been enough GIFs that showed Clair Huxtable walking into her brownstone in Brooklyn Heights, New York, at 10 Stigwood Avenue. When Vanessa, Rudy, Sandra, Theo, Denise and even Elvin got outta pocket, she was quick to remind them that she moved like she walked on water but her tongue could be cold as ice.
She just did it with the kind of grace and style that is lacking on social media and is dwindling away with Generation Z and Generation Alpha. I’m not even altogether sure Generation X or my own Millennial generation is holding on tight to it.
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But if you look at Phylicia Rashad in interviews, you’ll always see traces of Clair Huxtable. Even when she’s going toe-to-toe with Taraji P. Henson in “Empire” or is torturing the late Cicely Tyson’s character in the Tyler Perry movie “A Fall from Grace,” there’s that unmistakable class. Phylicia Rashad couldn’t shake it if she wanted to, anymore than the late Maya Angelou could shake sounding poetic while gossiping in “Poetic Justice.” Keke Palmer’s own actress friend Angela Bassett has the same kind of energy at all times — with and without the queen rank in “Black Panther.” It’s who they are.
I know professional women like Clair. I’m related to a few. I wouldn’t call them bougie (or boujee), and I damn sure wouldn’t refer to them as “uppity.” While there are those who believe Clair was written into the sitcom script to make white people feel comfortable, Corporate America teaches us on a daily basis that that’s a bold-faced lie. Successful black people are a bigger threat to racists than anybody else. (Again, the Tulsa destruction was strategic.) The Clairs of the world don’t live their lives trying to appease white people either. (If you’ve watched the debate panel on “Retrospective TV,” you know that Clair was still considered a threat to them too.)
They’re just educated, positive women who know how to use their words without using their fists. They know how to make their points without relying on physical weaknesses in their opponents. They know how to put someone in their place but pick and choose the swiveled necks or the eye rolls. They don’t want to be the kind of caricature of black women that anti-Clair women think ALL black women should be.
And a small part of me feels like the women who don’t care for Clair are no better than non-black people who are uncomfortable around black women overall. They simply don’t understand how a black woman can exist without feeling beneath them. Their social circle makes Zeus Network’s casting directors salivate. Clair Huxtable agitates them.
It could be a matter of not being well-traveled. It could be a matter of never hanging out with any woman who wasn’t a carbon copy of herself. Or, it could just be the discomfort of being around a woman who is comfortable in her own skin — astute, ice-tongued and poised. Either way, that’s a problem this crew will have to deal with on their own time. The Clair Huxtables of the world can’t fix your insecurities for you.
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