Enlightened Racism: The Cosby Show, Audiences, And The Myth Of The American Dream

Through a major study of the audiences of "The Cosby Show, " Professors Jhally and Lewis treat two issues of great social and political importance--how television, America's most widespread cultural form, influences the way we think, and how our society in the post-Civil Rights era thinks about race, our most widespread cultural problem.The authors offer a radical challenge to the conventional wisdom concerning racial stereotyping in the United States and demonstrate how apparently progressive programs like "The Cosby Show, " despite good intentions, actually help to construct "enlightened" forms of racism.