Cedric the Entertainer is opening up about how the season finale of “The Neighborhood” will use humour to address white privilege.
The finale which airs on April 22 will take a look at how African-Americans and their Caucasian counterparts are treated differently in the same place. This episode will take a comedic turn at a country club.
Cedric the Entertainer, a star and executive producer of the show spoke to Deadline about how he came up with the idea for the episode “Welcome To The Conversation.”
“I wanted to open up the conversation about how there are still very much these spaces where the attitude of the majority is that these things are expected and they don’t even question it,” he told them in a phone interview. “The conversation is what happens when people in this culture try to act like there’s really not racism anymore.”
The show has already been picked up for season two and stars Cedric as Calvin, a slightly racist neighbour who has to change his ways when Dave, a guy from the Midwest played by Max Greenfield, moves into the predominantly African-American L.A neighbourhood.
“We discussed this idea of Calvin taking advantage of Dave’s white privilege and him not liking it,” Cedric said. “We thought that was a more unique approach of talking about the subject matter, where one is aware of it and knows that it exists. The other person thinks that it doesn’t exist.”
The Hollywood veteran is hoping that next season they can push things even further but understands there will be limits.
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“We’re not HBO or anything,” he added. “But they [CBS] do want the show to be interesting for America and to have a bit of an edge, so we plan on trying to up that ante in the second season.”
“The Neighborhood” Season 1 finale airs Monday, April 22 at 8/7c on CBS.
