Couldn't the same be said about Lear's depiction of the Bunkers and the Stiveks and Maud, etc.? After all, they were all caricatures and comedic stereotypes, "deeply informed" by Lear's view of white people. A writer can only write from a personal point of view. I suppose, by this criteria, Mark Twain's depiction of black characters make him a racist.

Minstrelsy and Amos and Andy were examples of racist exploitation and cultural appropriation, yes. Pat Boone's milk-toast covers of Fats Domino and Little Richard songs, too. Yes, white folks have been stealing from Black culture and Black creators since the dawn of time. But who draws the line? And, if such a line exists, it keeps moving. Does a newly drawn line that will get redrawn again next year always apply to work created in a past context?

Norman Lear confronted white America with its own fragility and gave a lot of very talented Black folks a platform to work and boost their careers. I always had the impression that Jimmy Walker's and Sherman Hensley's and Red Fox's characters were racial stereotypes. But, the actors themselves were responsible for the portrayals and, therefore, complicit in broadcasting those impressions into millions of living rooms. Is Norman Lear solely responsible for that? Really?