A new ABC comedy entitled "Black-Ish" has been created to help shed light on racism.
The sitcom revolves around the life of a black-ish family called the Johnsons, who are residing in Los Angeles and who are also struggling financially, Boston Herald noted.
On Wednesday, "Black-Ish" kicked off its first ever episode where the lead character, Andre, played by actor Anthony Anderson, expressed his thoughts over the possibility of his family losing ties to their roots, according to USA Today.
Although Andre and his wife may be regarded as successful individuals, he claimed that he cannot really say he's living the American dream primarily because he's black, the NY Times reported.
"I guess for a kid from the hood, I'm living the American dream. The only problem is, whatever American had this dream probably wasn't where I'm from. And if he was, he should have mentioned the part about how when brothers start getting a little money, stuff starts getting a little weird," Andre explained.
The same publication noted that the new sitcom does not necessarily offer any simple answers to issues of racism and discrimination but "the show amusingly questions racial issues and assumptions that other shows ignore, from whether it's bad that his children don't identify their classmates by race to whether it's good that strangers in parking lots aren't afraid of him."
The New York Times noted, "If that's going to be the pattern of this series, it will probably stay amusing enough. But the ingredients are in place for something substantial here: The cast is decent, and there's a willingness to at least voice race-related themes that you won't hear on many other shows."
"Black-Ish" creator, Kenya Barris recently spoke to the Huffington Post and said, "It's a really important time for this show to air," but clarified, "I'm not trying to get on a pulpit and preach."
"Black-Ish" airs every Wednesday at 9:30 pm on ABC.