Penny Proud

By: Quincy Wansel

The Proud Family was created in 2001 by Bruce W. Smith and Ralph Farquhar, two Black animators and directors from the US. The Proud Family is the first animated show about a Black family, and this made both Smith and Farquhar “proud and disappointed at the same time. Proud that [they] got a chance to be the first, disappointing that [they] remain the only [show]. That’s why it’s important to do this show. [They] want there to be more Proud Families on. There’s not just one view of Blackness or a Black family. [They] would like to see a lot of different families portrayed,” (Radulovic). The Proud Family show follows Penny Proud, the 14-year old eldest child, through her “tween” years, including her family and social life. Penny Proud is an advocate for social issues, a critical thinker, a student, and a Black girl living in a diverse community. She proves that she already has the tools for success – reflecting back to us the effects of hip-hop feminist pedagogy. Penny Proud challenges the can-do/at-risk narrative and throws her own celebration of Black girlhood.

The show is a transparent depiction of a Black girlhood, showing modern young Black girls a realistic representation of their lives right in front of them for the first time. The importance of Black girls seeing themselves accurately reflected back at them in the media is explained in the New York Times article “A Groundbreaking Cartoon Family Returns, ‘Louder and Prouder” by Leigh-Ann Jackson. “While many of the show’s themes were universal, they were delivered in a way that was uniquely and intentionally rooted in Black culture,” (Jackson). This show tells a story of a Black family simply living their lives. Black culture perfectly seasoned the show, with references to important Black figures such as Shirly Chilsolm, racism, classism, Kwanzaa, and arguably the most important: African American Vernacular English, or AAVE. This show was purposefully Black, and it tackled many issues that were not as commonly portrayed in the media, especially those geared towards youth.

“The Banjo Lesson” by Henry Ossawa Tanner, an American-born Black man who turned to France for artistry and recognition, is one of the first pieces of art that shows Black domesticity, similar to The Proud Family. It unapologetically makes change to the dominant slave narrative of Black life and puts the community in a space of tranquility and familial bond – something that was once barred. The Proud Family is a diverse, working-class, Black family living through family feuds and experiencing Black love; a discounted experience in Black life that makes waves in Black culture.

Specifically for Black girls, this show reminds them that they can be Black and successful; two experiences historically unlikely to be thought of together. “Smith set out to create a cartoon sitcom in the vein of “Moesha”— one that centered a Black girl’s life and experiences,” (Jackson). They can speak and act differently than academics and all the White girls living their various girlhoods in front of them before this show – and they do – and simply be. They can dance to rap and go to school, and they do. They can say ‘ain’t’ and win an award, and they do. They are Penny Proud and Penny Proud is them. The creators of this show carefully crafted this show for the Black girl so that she may see herself living her normal life, without racial stereotypes and discourse from adults, and accomplish what they set their minds to like Penny.

Black girls seeing themselves accurately represented in the media is ultimately reflected in how they see themselves. “Gerbner’s cultivation theory suggests that repeated exposure to TV images results in viewers believing what they view are real-world representations (Gerbner 1998; Gerbner and Gross 1976) …an application of the cultivation theory to the TV-viewing habits of Black youth suggests that youth will accept Black-character portrayals and media images as valid models of acceptable and expected behaviors for Black people,” (Adams-Bass et. al). The very existence of Penny Proud and the Proud Family acts as a role model for Black girls or a simultaneous blueprint of their lives as they are living them. They can look to Penny and her girlfriends navigating the same experiences, whether they be cultural, racial, or gendered.

Penny Proud does the work herself. The creators of this show were able to set the bar for how Black girlhood should be depicted in the media – specifically focusing on advocating for issues not given enough attention. “The transformative model…was constructed primarily by small, local organizations that emerged at the intersections of several movements and processes, including juvenile justice organizing; Hip Hop politics; anti-sweatshop and child labor projects; environmental racism organizations; queer youth movements and Gay-Straight Alliances; feminist concerns with “the third wave” and young women and girls; and shifts in youth development organizations,” (Taft). Similarly to the girls of the Radical Monarchs based out of Oakland, California, she educates herself on social justice issues, makes change within her community, and advocates for herself and others. Penny is independent and is also shown countless times throughout the show consulting and working with her girlfriends regarding said issues. This not only highlights that Black girls are capable of doing this very thing, but that they also learn valuable lessons and insights from friends just like them. This independent aspect of the series is shown back to us in a core value of the Combahee River Collective mission statement – the collective “belief that Black women are inherently valuable, that our liberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else’s but because of our need as human persons for autonomy,” (Taylor).

The episode, “She’s Got Game”, in the first season of the show follows Penny as she breaks a gendered barrier and advocates for herself to be on the boys’ football team at her school. Even though her father is against it, family and friends support her until she is eventually let on the team. Her biggest supporter in this episode, her friend Zoey, says “girls can do anything boys can” and chants “let Penny play” after the football coach says he would like it better if she ran home and baked a cake. Penny explicitly calls him out saying that there is no rule saying she cannot be on the team, but there are plenty saying he cannot call her ‘babydoll’. Throughout the entire challenge of trying to get on the team, the boys and coach paternalize her, saying she would get hurt and calling her infantilizing names.

Now that she is a member of the football team, the coach will not let her in the game. After discrediting her ability and denying her right, protected by Title X, that she can play football, she ends up getting put in the game and wowing everyone by scoring many touchdowns and doing very well on the team. She also makes a mistake, fumbling a ball that could have won the game for her team. She is humanized, crying on the field while her parents console her. But arguably the most important lesson here for Black girls was what her mother says as they are walking off the field: “But you won so much more, Penny. You won so much more.” Her mother recognizes that even though she lost the game, she advocated for herself to get on the team, despite criticism, and proved everyone wrong.

In the episode, “Who You Callin’ a Sissy?”, Penny’s gender-nonconforming friend, Michael, is bullied by fellow students after doing well in a pick-up game of basketball. After the other team loses, the main bully, Tookie, turns to call them a ‘sissy’. In the original Proud Family, many hints are dropped that Michael is gay or gender-nonconforming. In the new The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, Michael is openly gay, sporting a much more self-expressed style. During the episode, Penny does not let them get away with the bullying. She confronts and calls out the bullies, even breaking off her date with Tookie to the upcoming school dance. Towards the end of the episode, Penny watches as a bully version of Michael terrorizes the dance and stands up to the bully. Michael lists parts of himself, like a fabulous basketball player, loyal and kind friend, sensational fashion designer, etc. He says that if that is what makes him a sissy, then he is totally cool with it because “that is who I am.”

In the “I Had a Dream” episode, Penny and her classmates are celebrating Black History Month and have to dress as important Black figures for a class assignment. Penny dresses as Angela Davis, LaCienega is Shirley Chisholm, and Dijonay is Bessie Coleman. She bumps her head in an accident at school and is transported back to 1955. The White janitor becomes the history teacher and the Black history teacher becomes the janitor. The Black students are all sitting in the back with the old desks and textbooks while the White students sit in the front. Penny is confused about where she is, and when she references Black History Month, everyone around her is shocked. Dijonay says “who you callin’ Black?” “You! Me! And everyone else sitting in the back with the old textbooks.” Her teacher patronizes her, saying that there is no Black History month, or Negro History month. In fact, he says with a smug grin that it cannot be because there is no such thing as Black history. Penny is enraged, and argues back at him that there is. She lists many great Black accomplishments that gave us the first open heart surgery, the traffic light, the super soaker, and a Black man as Secretary of state. Everyone laughs at her as if none of this is possible. At the end of the episode, Penny recites Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. 's I Have a Dream speech.

This episode is critical because Penny is pushing back against a White teacher, specifically during a time where that would not have been allowed whatsoever. Penny Proud challenges the Black Girl Pushout. “Black girls describe being labeled and suspended for being “disruptive” or “defiant” if they ask questions or otherwise engage in activities that adults consider affronts to their authority…We also see black girls criminalized (arrested on campus or referred to law enforcement) instead of engaged as children and teens whose mistakes could be addressed through non-punitive restorative approaches,” (Anderson). Penny Proud does not face repercussions for standing up to her teacher the first time. In light of this, she does it again at the end of the episode. She stands up to her teacher, and her friend Zoey sits in the back with the Black kids in an act of solidarity. The class eventually all joins hands and refuses to move back to their segregated seats which forces the teacher to leave the class.

Because of Penny’s willingness and integrity, she broke barriers in a space that could have easily gotten her arrested or worse for her actions. Throughout her encounters with the history teacher, he tries to discredit and silence her from speaking her truth. “The silencing of Black girls in school spaces makes their experiences appear isolated from White supremacist narratives that position their knowledge and ways of being as antithetical to ‘‘appropriate’’ behavior. [Critical conversation spaces] for Black girls provide discussion opportunities that support storytelling and oral history in the African diasporic cultural tradition,” (Carter). Her recalling Black accomplishments to her class is a part of storytelling, a critical component of Black collectivist culture. She taps into her own value of Black culture while also showing that Black girls do and can share their own truths.

Black girls who speak and/or like Penny Proud are heavily represented in the best light possible in the Proud family show. Penny Proud has a thick accent and distinct way of speaking that many like her can relate to. She speaks for herself. She can talk about a wide range of social issues from racism to homophobia, fat shaming to classism. This show reminds Black girls that they do not have to change who they are to be heard, and that even if the way they speak is not traditionally “academic,” they are more than capable of educating those around them, including authority. “We must resist archiving the ways Black girls sound, as loud or quiet, as the most important things about them and instead embrace and begin to name a wider repertoire of how Black girls sound as a potentially creative source of knowledge that informs the kind of movement work made possible when Black girlhood is deployed as an organizing construct that moves and arms Black girls’ lives with justice,” (Brown).

References

Adams-Bass, Valerie N., et al. “That’s Not Me I See on TV . . . : African American Youth Interpret Media Images of Black Females.” Women, Gender, and Families of Color, vol. 2, no. 1, 2014, pp. 79–100., https://doi.org/10.5406/womgenfamcol.2.1.0079.

Anderson, Melinda D. “The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 15 Mar. 2016, https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/03/the-criminalization-of-black-girls-in-schools/473718/.

Brown, Ruth Nicole, and Ruth Nicole Brown. “Chapter 5.” Black Girlhood Celebration: Toward a Hip-Hop Feminist Pedagogy, Peter Lang, New York, NY, 2009.

Carter Andrews, Dorinda J., et al. “The Impossibility of Being ‘Perfect and White’: Black Girls’ Racialized and Gendered Schooling Experiences.” American Educational Research Journal, vol. 56, no. 6, 2019, pp. 2531–2572., https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831219849392.

Jackson, Leigh-Ann. “A Groundbreaking Cartoon Family Returns, 'Louder and Prouder'.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 23 Feb. 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/23/arts/television/proud-family-returns.html.

Radulovic, Petrana. “The Proud Family Creators: 'There's Not Just One View of Blackness or a Black Family'.” Polygon, Polygon, 17 Feb. 2022, https://www.polygon.com/disney-plus/22939385/proud-family-louder-and-prouder-creator-interview.

Taft, Jessica K. “Girlhood in Action: Contemporary U.S. Girls’ Organizations and the Public Sphere.” Girlhood Studies, vol. 3, no. 2, 2010, https://doi.org/10.3167/ghs.2010.030202.

Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta. How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective. Haymarket Books, 2017.