Fighting Charges of Assimilation in Hansberrys A Raisin...

Fighting Charges of Assimilation in Hansberrys A Raisin in the Sun and The Cosby Show The critical reception of The Cosby Show, an enormously popular television sitcom in the 1980s, roughly paralleled that of A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberrys highly acclaimed play of the 1950s. Both the television series and the play helped change the way Blacks are portrayed in the entertainment media. But despite being initially greeted with critical praise, both subsequently fell under heavy scrutiny by many critics for being too assimilationist. However, in both cases, the charges of assimilation may perhaps be too harsh. A Raisin in the Sun, a drama of a middle-class family in Chicago, should not be regarded as a wholehearted†¦show more content†¦He longs for the socioeconomic advantages of the affluent people and assimilates to their ideas. As Darwin Turner explains, Walter typifies the upward-moving American male. He honors ruthless capitalism (4). However, all of this is not to say that Hansberrys play condones or endorses this kind of attitude or ideal. Nor is it accurate to assume that the play is against such assimilationist goals. Instead, A Raisin in the Sun remains decidedly and deliberately ambiguous in any sort of moral judgment. The 1950s was a decade in which black literature emphasized the issue of integration. Black writers also consciously stressed the similarities between Blacks and Whites. Hansberry believed that blacks and Whites had similar character traits and values, as A Raisin in the Sun demonstrates. However, Hansberry assumed a consciously ambivalent stance in regard to social integration (Turner, 4). The Youngers did not want to move into a white community merely out of a desire to live with whites. They moved out of a desire for freedom and opportunity rather than for social integration. But this motivation should not be construed as a desire to assimilate. Instead, it is a desire to achieve an ideal shared by all Americans. In this regard, A Raisin in the Sun is not a mere proponent of black assimilation--the play deals realistically