Erika Alexander, the actress known for her roles on “The Cosby Show” and most notably “Living Single” is making an interesting claim about the latter show and other popular sitcoms from the 90s. And what she has to say is sparking a lot of chatter online.
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Alexander’s comments were brought on by previous assertions by singer Ari Lennox, who recently shared a slightly controversial take in July about the show “Martin” from back in the day. In particular, Lennox said that upon rewatching some episodes, she felt as there were too many bad jokes directed at Tichina Arnold’s character Pam, that took aim at her looks and were indirectly laced with colorism.
“There are some things where I draw the line. Pam was so f*cking beautiful and so fine,” she said at the time. “And I just feel like growing up as a chocolate girl, I don’t even know if I was able to understand the greatness of Pam because of what I was being fed. Always going in on Pam, that’s all I remember.”
After Lennox’s comments hit the internet, she was subsequently dragged by many online who felt she was reaching and trying to put a damper on the legendary sitcom.
However, fast forward to mid-September, Alexander herself is echoing similar sentiments as Lennox and putting her own beloved show under the microscope thanks to her podcast, “Reliving Single.”
“Having doing this rewatch podcast, I didn’t see some things a little different. We talked a lot about colorization and we all suffered from it,” she said in an interview with Van Lathan and Rachael Lindsay for their “Higher Learning” podcast. “I think that what we’re rediscovering by reclaiming our opinion about these things–because no one ever asked us our opinion about anything back in the day. You come in, you’re hired, yo do your gig, you keep moving.”
She went on to say over time certain things became “normalized” and that it sometimes take distance in order to come back and gain new insight and hindsight from what was being put on TV. Alexander also made the surprising claim that she knew back then that there colorism-laced jokes and lines that she didn’t like within “Martin” and even on certain episodes of “Living Single.”
“Being dark skin is a unique burden in this world, especially for Black women,” she said. “And a lot of the true damage that was done and the wounds were unfortunately received by other Black people. All I know is that we can do better now, but we also needed to all grow up and away from it for a little bit.”
Once Alexander’s comments began to circulate, many took to social media to express that Lennox was vindicated in her stance and shared that the conversation about this was long overdue.
“I’m so glad she said this because Ari was right about colorism the whole time. Erika Alexander affirming and uplifting her perspective was much needed,” wrote one user on X/Twitter.
“People like to act purposely obtuse when it comes to Ari Lennox’s very valid points about colourism in black sitcoms. I’m glad Erika didn’t feed into that because y’all piss me off,” said another.
“I’m glad they asked Erika about this. So many folks were so dismissive of Ari’s feelings on this. Growing up & being a darker-skinned girl/woman, we definitely feel things that others may not feel & it’s valid. Everyone takes/feels/understands things differently than the next,” one other user wrote.
Added another: “Great perspective from Erika. I love that she acknowledged that colorism did exist on those shows but it also doesn’t mean we have to rip apart the shows now and erase the good in them.”
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