The Shirt Story By Bill Cosby Summary

When one thinks about a black family in the 70’s or even the 80’s they think about how poor they are, and not very educated. The dad works a 9 to 5 job as a janitor, plumber, kitchen of the restaurants, McDonalds as cooks and dishwashers, and Barbering to name a few, while the mother is at home attending the kids. That is what people thought for a while until Bill Cosby came around and changed all of what people think about blacks in America. He came up with a TV show about an African American family that was well educated and lived really nice not in the ghetto. He wanted everyone to know that black people can go far in life with a good education and hard work.
At the time TV was depicting blacks as poorly educated and from what they call
He wanted to teach his kids on the show that hard work does pay off and not have things given to people. One episode sticks out is “the Shirt Story” The story was about how Theo (Malcolm-Jamal Warner), goes out and buys a $95 dollar shirt. When Cliff (Cosby) finds out about this he gets upset and says “No kid should be a $95 dollar shirt unless he is on stage and singing with his five brothers” (Jackson reference). Theo says “Don’t you want something better for your son” Cliff wanted his son to save his money and not blow it on stuff that will not last long. He wanted to teach his son how to manage is money so Theo would not go into depth by blowing his money. To sum up the episode, Theo sister Denise (Lisa Bonet) makes the same shirt sort of which teaches another lesson that one can be creative and make their own clothes to help them save a little money
Alvin Poussaint. graduated from high school he went on to Columbia College from 1956 then went to Corneel University where he got his M.D. in 1960. He completed his postgraduate training at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) in Neuropsychiatric Institute, were he served as the chief resident in psychology. Poussaint was passionate for more of a positive in black images in America at the time. He was tired of seeing his race being so put down that he wanted to do something about it. Poussaint was a Veteran of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi, and psychologist for the Cosby show. Also he was a firm believer in how a family unit shapes an individual’s choice. Dr. Poussaint’s did some research of shows on how changing family patterns. With the increased of competition in the workplace and disruption in the communities often results in divorce, violence and neglect. He took all of this and teaches us how to balance these issues to create a more powerful and positive solutions. According to Alvin Poussaint, The Cosby Show used small details that are subtle but important--it's a way of educating the whole country. (Racial Stereotypes Persist,