There were three television characters who really mattered to me as a kid: Michael, Leroy and Theo.<\/p>\n
In elementary school, \u201cGood Times\u201d was the television show that most closely resembled my family. And seeing reruns of Ralph David Carter\u2019s portrayal of a precocious young boy learning what it means to be poor, gifted and Black is what moved his Michael from fiction to family for me.<\/p>\n
By middle school, I was no longer wearing cornrows like Gene Anthony Ray, but I tried everything else to be like his character Leroy from the television show \u201cFame.\u201d For some of my classmates, the performing arts were a fun way to express themselves, and the show was inspirational. For me, it was my way out of the hood, and Leroy was the blueprint. Through the Detroit-Windsor Dance Academy, I was able to take professional dance lessons for free and ultimately earned a dance scholarship for college.<\/p>\n
But it wasn\u2019t a linear journey. Despite being gifted, I struggled academically and required summer classes to graduate from high school. That\u2019s why I connected with Theo, whose challenges in the classroom were one of the running jokes on \u201cThe Cosby Show.\u201d The family never gave up on him, and more importantly, he didn\u2019t stop trying.<\/p>\n
Through the jokes about his intelligence, the coming-of-age miscues (and the dyslexia diagnosis<\/a>), the storylines of Theo \u2014 like those of Leroy and Michael \u2014 often reflected struggles I foolishly thought no one else was experiencing when I was growing up. It is only through distance and time are we able to see moments like those more clearly. In retrospect, the three of them were like knots I held onto on a rope I had no idea I was climbing.<\/p>\n This is why the Black community\u2019s response to the death of Malcolm-Jamal Warner this week isn\u2019t solely rooted in nostalgia but also in gratitude. We recognize the burden he\u2019s been carrying, so that others could climb.<\/p>\n When \u201cThe Cosby Show\u201d debuted in 1984, there were no other examples of a successful two-parent Black family on air. We were on television but often trauma and struggle \u2014 not love and support \u2014 were at the center of the narratives. So even though Black women had been earning law degrees since the 1800s \u2014 beginning with Charlotte E. Ray in 1872 \u2014 and Black men were becoming doctors before that, the initial response from critics was that the show\u2019s premise of a doctor-and-lawyer Black couple was not authentically Black.<\/p>\n That narrow-minded worldview continued to hang over Hollywood despite the show\u2019s success. In 1992, after nearly 10 years of \u201cThe Cosby Show\u201d being No. 1 \u2014 and after the success of \u201cBeverly Hills Cop II\u201d and \u201cComing to America\u201d \u2014 the Eddie Murphy-led project \u201cBoomerang\u201d was panned as unrealistic because the main characters were all Black and successful. The great Murphy<\/a> took on the Los Angeles Times directly in a letter for its critique on what Black excellence should look like.<\/p>\n However, Black characters like Michael, Leroy and Theo had been taking on the media since the racist film \u201cThe Birth of a Nation\u201d painted all of us as threats in 1915. It could not have been easy for Warner, being the face of so much for so many at an age when a person is trying to figure out who he is. And because he was able to do so with such grace, Warner\u2019s Theo defined Blackness simply by being what the world said we were not. This sentiment is embodied in his last interview, when he answered the question of his legacy by saying: \u201cI will be able to leave this Earth knowing and people knowing that I was a good person.\u201d<\/p>\n In the end, that is ultimately what made his character, along with Leroy and Michael, so important to the Black community. It wasn\u2019t the economic circumstances or family structure of the sitcoms that they all had in common. It was their refusal to allow the ugliness of this world to tear them down. To change their hearts or turn their light into darkness. They maintained their humanity and in the process gave so many of us a foothold to keep climbing higher.<\/p>\n YouTube: @LZGrandersonShow<\/a><\/p>\n Insights <\/p>\n L.A. Times Insights<\/a> delivers AI-generated analysis on Voices content to offer all points of view. Insights does not appear on any news articles. <\/p>\n Viewpoint This article generally aligns with a Center Left<\/b> point of view. Learn more about this AI-generated analysis<\/a> Perspectives <\/p>\n The following AI-generated content is powered by Perplexity. The Los Angeles Times editorial staff does not create or edit the content.<\/p>\n Ideas expressed in the piece<\/p>\n Different views on the topic<\/p>\n No contrasting perspectives were identified in the provided sources. The article and supporting materials exclusively focus on eulogizing Warner\u2019s legacy without presenting alternative viewpoints.<\/p>\n \n