The Chris Rock joke that “when Black families get a little money, it’s a countdown to when you’re poor again” is suitable for my life story. Black families have a tendency to fluctuate in wealth in America. My family wasn’t wealthy like the Banks family, but we weren’t the family in Good Times either. When I first watched The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, I was a middle-class Black kid from New York. If Bel Air is a reboot, then it should revamp the characterizations and complexities of the original show. While the scene is well-acted and illustrates the “urban” vs “suburban” dynamic between Will and Carlton that resonated with me in the original series, the Carlton from the original show would be against the use of the word in general, a well-known trope with Black people of a high-class status. Carlton breaks up a fight and ultimately sides with Connor, a privileged bully, about his use of the word. Will, the star of the show, objects to Carlton’s white lacrosse teammates using the word. Carlton Banks, the son of Phillip and Vivian Banks, is in the Bel-Air Academy locker room with his white teammates rapping to Bobby Shmurda’s “Hot Nigga.” The song, which uses the word “nigga” throughout, is rapped by Carlton’s white teammates with glee as Carlton dances. There’s a scene in the first episode of Bel-Air, the dramatized Peacock reboot of NBC comedy The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, that exemplifies a core misunderstanding of one of the main characters.
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