Someone recently suggested -- I have been getting lots of those lately-- that I make my posts a little shorter and leave room for a little more interaction and comments from the readers and fellow field Negroes.
Tonight is a good night for me to take some of his advise, because I really don't have much to post about....well , there is one thing: I was watching TV Land, and I was wondering; where are all the black people in Mayberry? And if some black folks actually moved in, do you think some of the good folks of Mayberry would have been talking about them in Floyd's Barber Shop? Do you think Aunt B and Andy would have moved? And finally, Could you have blamed them if they did?
I heard somewhere that Mayberry was
based on Any Griffith's hometown of Mt. Airy North Carolina. Ironically, Mt. Airy is the name of the most diverse section of Phiily. Coincidence? I think not.
based on Any Griffith's hometown of Mt. Airy North Carolina. Ironically, Mt. Airy is the name of the most diverse section of Phiily. Coincidence? I think not. "Look Andy; black people!!!"
Are you kidding!! Deputy Fife would have that one bullet Andy allows him to keep up a brother's ass the moment he saw the black of the skin. No questions asked.
ReplyDeletePeace
"Are you kidding!! Deputy Fife would have that one bullet Andy allows him to keep up a brother's ass the moment he saw the black of the skin. No questions asked."
ReplyDeleteLMAO of the thought of that scene :)
"Oh Andy, can I just have one more bullet, pleaaaaasseee?"
Field, I don't think I would have wanted to live in a town where there were no Black People.
ReplyDeleteThat fictional town in "Leave It to Beaver", Mayfield, didn't have any Black people in it, either.
Wally to the Beav: "Look, Beav, there's a black guy!"
Beaver: "Say, Wally, what's a Black Guy?"
"Are you kidding!! Deputy Fife would have that one bullet Andy allows him to keep up a brother's ass the moment he saw the black of the skin. No questions asked."
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You're assuming Barney Fife could shoot straight. Dick Cheney had better aim at not intentionally hitting his target than Barney did.
I guess Mayberry was a sundown town.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing that i've watched on TV land is the Cosby Show lol BUT... that is pretty ironic how he made a show based on his hometown but forgot to include the black folks... hmmm...
ReplyDeleteAll the black folk in Mayberry only came out at night until whitey invented the flashlight, then they jumped to The Jeffersons and Good Times.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Aunt May was was light skinned and just passing, i mean she was the maid.
ReplyDeletei know i saw an older black woman in the town once. she was a passer-by while andy and barney were standing out on the sidewalk. lol.
ReplyDeletebut you know the black folks probably lived on the other side of the tracks; it was named something like east mayberry and has since been incorporated as its own town (so that the po' negroes won't take the prosperous mayberry's tax revenue).
No one would speak of the Negroes in that town, unless someone got out of place. There were probably references that might have gone unnoticed; using "that boy" or "my girl."
ReplyDeleteWhen you're young, you don't think about these things...but, as you get older, you go, um, I don't think I'd want to live in a town with no Black folk.
ReplyDeleteI don't think we'd be too welcome. We sure as heck wouldn't be dropping by the police station to see Andy and Barney.
"i know i saw an older black woman "in the town once. she was a passer-by while andy and barney were standing out on the sidewalk. lol."
ReplyDeleteYou are kidding right? I think I will get all the lost episodes and try to find this one.
Hey, does anyone know what RFD really stands for?
HAHAHAH... that's so funny. Martin Lawrance said that on "You So Crazy" (How come there were no black people in Mayberry) I personally think they just didn't make black people back then...HAHAHA.
ReplyDeleteJust imagine Clara's face if she saw a black person. She would faint at the sight! A town meeting would have to be called b/c all the women would be so afraid and asking "what are we going to do Andy".
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ReplyDeleteIf blacks reached a certain percentage numerically yes, whites and aunt B. would have cowboyed up and got ghost (left). Ans, as time went on many blacks would have moved too just for the same reason that all of the whites left. How you doing field, keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteTake care,
"Hey, does anyone know what RFD really stands for?"
ReplyDeleteOther than "rural free delivery", you mean?
I don't think they had any in Hazard County, either. And the Duke boys had a confederate flag on their car.
ReplyDeleteCoincidence? I don't think so.
Thanks anon. I really wanted to know that. I knew it had someting to do with the Post Office, and the "R" was for rural, but I had no clue about the rest.
ReplyDeletedjtyg; now you have me thinking: Duke,confederate flag, Maybery was supposed to be in North Carolina..... ~~cue in Twilight Zone music here~~~
Esther,
ReplyDeleteI saw that older black woman too, and I was shocked! Who knew there were black folks in Mayberry?
What you're looking at is television policy of early-1960s programming during the Jim Crow era. Networks had a problem with southern affiliates when they either refused to air, or protested The Nat King Cole Show, and finding black leads, other than maids, fools or incidental characters, would be rare for a show that might otherwise seem attractive to white southern audiences.
ReplyDeleteLater in the 1960s and early-1970s you had more of a significant black presence on rural/southern TV shows (e.g. Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies had recurring black characters in their later seasons)
The question isn't just why Mayberry seemed to be so segregated, but why all of TV was a white's only medium during the time.
LOL@"sundown town." Im sure that was the case!
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That's crazy
ReplyDeletevery..