Netflix just dropped the trailer for Kenya Barris and Rashida Jones new show called #blackAF and I already love it. Mr. Barris’ mixes fiction with his real life tales of being a successful black man in Hollywood and the good and bad that goes along with it. There are also plenty cameos from other well known black directors and creators, such as Ava DuVernay, Issa Ray, and Tyler Perry just to name a few.
As usual #blackAF draws from Mr. Barris’ own life and is struggles with being an affluent black man and also raising very affluent black kids in today’s climate. What does being “black” really mean? His wife, played by Rashida Jones, is bi-racial, as is Jones in real life. Jones father is legendary Quincy Jones and her mother is Peggy Lipton. As I watched the trailer, I wondered how much of Rashida’s own life was played out on the screen. There is a quote from her, early in the trailer, in which she states, she has to try twice as hard to be a black role model to her kids because she is “mixed.” Later in the trailer, her eldest daughter tells her “Mom, you’re the whitest black person I know.”
I think this show will be funny, very real, and very needed, I hope to talk openly about it with my friends. I hope to see myself in some of the characters and I’m so happy it’s on Netflix so it won’t get watered down. I fully expect to laugh out loud and be fully invested by episode one. Take a look at the trailer down below and let me know what you think.
Check out the #blackAF trailer below:
#blackAF premieres April 14 on Netflix.
