'Bob Hearts Abishola' Episode 5 features a misguided attempt at talking about systemic generational racism
When Chuck Lorre's new comedy from CBS, 'Bob Hearts Abishola' released many had mixed reactions -- how could the man behind shows like 'The Big Bang Theory' and 'Two and a Half Men' be qualified to tell the story of Nigerian immigrants? Many even said the show sounded like a rehashing of 'Mike and Molly' which also starred Billy Gardell, with Molly replaced by Abishola.
Indeed, when the show started airing, it immediately found haters, especially within the society of American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS) who have demanded that CBS nix the show based on the dialogues featured in the show. One such show detailed a ranking system of men by the Nigerian female characters on the show, Abishola and Kemi. Men from the same tribe ranked highest, followed by men from a different tribe, and so on until the end where white men were ranked higher than African-American men.
In the latest episode, titled 'Whacking the Mole', Bob's siblings, Douglas and Christina come to him with a proposal for their next ad with just the family's sock company logo, along with the words "We're sorry" in big, block letters. The siblings want to apologize for the family business being run by all white people, asking if it is "systemic generational racism". They think the ad will help tell the industry and the general public that, as Christina says, "We get it, we're woke."
Later, Douglas and Christina call two of their workers employed in the company to a meeting to discuss the ad -- they are the same Nigerian men that Bob tried to learn the Yoruba language from in an earlier episode. Bob is in denial of the racial disparity in the company until one of the men says that through the many years he's worked there, the floor supervisors have always been black. We later see these two men wearing shirts that say "Supervisor" in the ad created by Douglas and Christina.
The whole sequence is an odd mirroring to Chuck Lorre and the show itself. Christina even says to Bob, "It's been 300 years, let them have their voice." But within that line lies the problem of the show -- the main issue that American Descendants of Slavery talks about is the issue of reparations mattering more to their section than for African immigrants who did not descend from slaves.
The topics the show tries to deal with require much more nuanced telling and the story this week just seems like a half-hearted, misguided attempt at telling it.
'Bob Hearts Abishola' airs on CBS on Monday nights.