Jaleel White Believes ‘Family Matters’ Is Overlooked In Black Community Because It Didn’t Tell “Hood Stories”

December 10, 2024 11:01am

Jaleel White recently shared his thoughts on his star-making sitcom, Family Matters, during a fireside chat at the Wilmington Library, coinciding with the release of his memoir, Growing Up Urkel.

During the discussion, White, who starred as lovestruck nerd Steve Urkel on the show, revealed his take that the classic sitcom is often overlooked by Black audiences in comparison to other 90s shows because it didn’t tell “hood stories.”

“Being a part of the ‘TGIF’ brand sometimes makes you feel like you don’t completely belong in the pantheon of Blackness,” White told moderator Randall Law. “Blackness has been treated as a very monolithic experience in entertainment. ‘If it’s not a hood story, it’s not a Black story.’ And you know, sometimes I feel left out of that.”

He went on, “If there’s ever a poll, and they say, ‘Oh, what are your favorite black shows?’ Martin is in there, Living Single or any of those kinds of shows… I already know we’re coming in last,” he joked. “But if there’s ever a poll and it’s just your favorite family shows, suddenly, we rank really high. So it’s kind of interesting how we look at ourselves, even as Black folks.” Listen to White break it down around the 7:30-minute mark below.

Many took issue with White implying that shows like Martin and Living Single are “hood”, with one observer writing on X/Twitter, “Living Single does not have ‘hood story lines’ they are literally all black professionals who live in a Brownstone in NY, Kadejah owns her on magazine and Max is a f**king attorney, what do Jaleel White even be talking about?” Another critic of White’s take shared, “Martin was a radio/tv talk show host, Gina & Pam worked in Marketing, Cole cleaned airplanes and Tommy redacted, but he wasn’t a bum.”

Others shared their takes that Family Matters simply doesn’t hold up as well as other shows of the decade, with one fan of White’s writing, “As a fan of both Jaleel & the show, he’s wrong. Family Matters, at its core, was just cheesy & became almost unwatchable by its 7th season & would’ve been canceled by S2 had it not been for him. Other shows were more captivating, but he created a character that’s been loved for decades.”

Despite his thoughts on Family Matters’ popularity — or lack thereof — in the Black community, White does believe that his character planted seeds for today’s flourishing “Black nerd culture.”

“Any brother that grew up in the ‘80s and ‘90s and 2000s, he was told that he looked like me,” he continued. “He was called Urkel and he didn’t look anything like me, guaranteed. But still, his peers would find a way to call him Urkel, and even girls to that extent. So it’s really humbling to see how far nerd culture has come. And really it’s not nerd culture, it’s smart culture, it’s hobbyist culture, it’s skateboarders… I could never have known in a million years that I could be the face of that.”

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