Reconciling Rochester and Obama

[Jack Benny]

I haven't seen this discussed here yet, so I thought I would bring it up. With our new president being an African-American, it brings up the whole Rochester, Amos and Andy issues. My thoughts have always been that Rochester has gotten the short end of the stick in most of the articles I have read. I've always thought Rochester should be treated like Jackie Robinson. Jack was instrumental in allowing an African-American to come into homes across our nation every week. Eddie Anderson was a trailblazer that showed the country just how funny and smart a black man could be. There always needs to be someone to break through every glass ceiling. Today it is Obama breaking through the highest glass ceiling of all, but 70 years ago it was Eddie Anderson breaking through the audio glass ceiling of radio, then 20 years later again Eddie Anderson was breaking the visual black ceiling of television. I think their is a proud lineage between Eddie Anderson and Barack Obama..

[mackdaddyg]

I think that Eddie Anderson's contribution is too easily dismissed because, in certain situations (particularly in the earlier radio episodes), he is depicted in racially stereotypical situations, such as playing craps. Also, his dialect, choices in free time activities (such as partying it up with the ladies, etc.), and constantly referring to Jack as "boss" causes people to see him as pandering too much to what the stereotypical black man was like.

However, my argument has always been that it didn't take long for the writers (whether they meant to or not) to give him the upper hand intellectually in dealing with a "superior" (strictly in the boss/employee sense). It's obvious, as far as the characters go, that Rochester is smarter and has more common sense than his boss. Heck, we can all relate to that!

He did a great job on the show. It's easy to forget in a way that this was a black man with an equal role among whites. It's also easy to forget how big of a deal that really was.

[LLeff]

It might interest or amuse you to know that I had a meeting with Obama's Senatorial office during the Jack Benny 39-cent Stamp campaign (because of his Illinois connection). And since the conference rooms were all taken, the person I was meeting with and I sat on the sofa in the front office. I made the same observation (wish I'd thought of the Rochester = Jackie Robinson connection) about Roch's revolutionary role in portraying African Americans. Suffice it to say that Obama supported the stamp.

In the middle of the meeting, Obama came breezing through the office about three feet away from me. I was suitably impressed. Pretty cool that Jack helped put me in proximity to a future US President!