Had occasion last evening to view the reboot of a snow we watched with our kids, The Wonder Years. In the version from the past, the viewer was shown the prospective of a 12 year old growing up in suburban IL along with his family, his friends and a depiction of life in 1968 America, as we saw it, very white. It was good at the time and since 1968 was the year I graduated, my personal prospective was different. There was lots of tragedy that year, Dr. King was assassinated as well Bobby Kennedy. The Viet Nam war was raging. I was getting my cap and gown and going to community college.
The new iteration of the show presents the same year from a African American prospective. Same twelve year old boy now called Dean. A bright, afro ed kid trying to find his way in the world just trying to get along with everybody. He attends a Junior High School named after Jefferson Davis with a life sized statue of the Confederate greeting the students as they arrive, truly a slap indicative of the time. Again, 1968 seen through a completely different lens. Lee Daniels is the show runner and for further cred, Don Cheadle does the narration. Dad is a music professor, with a budding radical teenage daughter and a older son serving in Viet Nam along with a supportive and peacekeeping mom. I don't know if this is a true depiction of Black life in that era because each day I feel like I know less about these citizens. But it has to be better than if a bunch of white guys were writing the script. Suggest you see this with your kids and grandkids regardless of your background.
nothing else to really report.
all for now
stay safe
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