Dear White People: The Fresh Prince Remake Wasn't Made For Us

To be completely transparent, I don’t have any more insight on this project other than seeing the fake trailer that was made in 2019 before it was picked up by NBC. I also probably won’t watch the show. This is just as well, I’m not the target audience any more than most people that end up reading this and my opinion on the show is unimportant. It wasn’t made for me. I’m not an expert on what black people have to deal with on a daily basis. I have no real understanding of what black people have had to endure in the past. The pigment of my skin and the privilege that my culture has created for itself guarantees that I am the last person who should be talking about the issue of race. I’ve been very lucky not to have any personal firsthand experience dealing with racism or discrimination. The best I can do is try to educate myself, but, even the best education doesn’t come close to knowing the experience. So it is not very often that I’ll offer my voice to issues of race, especially making comments on what black people in North America deal with on a daily basis. It’s not my place. Likewise, you won’t see me comment on the changes movies and television is making regarding the portrayal of black people in entertainment. It’s not my place to comment on if they are good and bad based on the issues. My like or dislike is all based on if I found it entertaining or not and frankly if I don’t understand or relate the cultural aspects of what I’m watching, it’s probably not my place to offer commentary and leave it up those in the target audience. It’s why you won’t see me commentating on Bollywood movies. What do I know about Indian culture that would make my opinion on a Bollywood film matter enough to its intended audience?

I think what I am qualified to comment on, however, is the shitty responses from the white people who have “hot takes”, concerns, or are upset about the change of tone regarding the Bel-Air TV show.

For those now following along, Bel-Air is a gritty reboot of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. It was as fake film trailer published on YouTube that made waves and is now being picked up for a series by NBC. I don't understand why people have a problem processing or were "worried" about this idea. (Sidebar, if a movie or TV show worries you, recheck your priorities) The original Fresh Prince was a sitcom in a different era that was not reflective of the reality African-Americans face. Watching the trailer you can tell that it's been retooled into something more relevant with our current time.

There are a lot — and I do mean a lot — of white people expressing really batshit reasoning to decide to watch the new TV show, or just outright not liking it (without even seeing it) because it’s not identical to the original sitcom of the 90s.

You do not need his validation.

For example, following the trailer that was released last March, Will Smith also decided to give his two cents on the film, giving it his blessing. Newsflash people: You don’t need Will Smith’s blessing to decide if you like this show or not. I don't understand the people who wait to see if an original actor/creator of something has to say about a reboot. Who cares? That question goes double with Will Smith. Why does Will Smith's approval validate or invalidate this film? His opinion shouldn't matter. The opinion of a celebrity whose point of view is so far removed from the struggles of real people shouldn't affect your opinion on if you should watch this or not. Have you paid attention to his life in the last 20 years? The guy is fucking bonkers now. Any validity his opinion ended when he starred in Wild Wild West and released his album Willennium for fucks sake. This clown made “getting jiggy with it” a household phrase. There are many, many, many more prominent black people whose opinions should be higher on your list before you reach Will Smith.

The original Fresh Prince was created by white people which really explains why the show was a sit-com about wacky rich black people that never seriously addressed issues that black people dealt with at the time. Bel-Air has been written and directed by Morgan Cooper, a black man. He's taking something that was, at best, low-level cultural appropriation and making it truly part of black culture and watching that trailer you can tell he wanted to make it into something for the black community. It is not supposed to be a carbon copy of a show for people who got a real kick of Uncle Phil throwing Jazz out the front door every episode. How anyone could think that would be the case does not make any sense and if you're one of those people you really need to shake your head.

Why are they changing the tone of what was once a light-hearted sit-com? Have you looked outside the window recently? Wake the fuck up. The black community doesn’t need some dopey sit-com right now. They need something different.

When people talk about how "classic" Fresh Prince was. Yeah, it was classic for being a sitcom about well-to-do inoffensive black people trying to groom their nephew from the hood into becoming just like them. Just like most "classics", it was completely tone-deaf to all the problems that black people were dealing with in the era it came out in. Some of the elements of Fresh Prince have not aged well and are even getting close to inching into the realm of being problematic by today’s standards, in my opinion.

I know what some of you are saying out there “I have black friends who grew up with Fresh Prince and they didn’t have any problems with it.” Well, I’m not here to engage in your hasty generalizations so you can shut the fuck up. If a gritty, serious take on Fresh Prince doesn't sit well with you, then binge-watch the old sitcom on Netflix and keep your easily worried mind insulated in that bubble you've lived in since the 90s.

The only opinion about this series should come from its intended audience: black people. That’s not to say, white people, can’t watch or have an opinion on it, I’m just saying that you’re not in a position where your review has much currency than someone in the target audience. That said, the currency of your opinion is absolutely worthless if you basis for disliking this new series is based entirely on the fact that it’s different from the source material.