The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
The Ethnic Tip
Season 1, Episode 17 · Aired 1991-01-14
Synopsis
Will proposes a black history class be instituted at Bel-Air Academy, and expects an easy A when Vivian volunteers to teach it. Many of the students enjoy her ways of teaching, except Will and Carlton when she gives them extra homework to do. At the end of the course, Vivian explains that she gave the two extra homework because as the only two black students in class she thought they'd get more from the course. When Will says he has read The Autobiography of Malcolm X, to which Vivian retorts there is more and unless he learns the full history behind the struggle for equal rights, then he all he has done is trivialize it. The show closes with a Malcolm X quote which reads: "Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs for those who prepare for it today."
In the series
This episode is part of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990–1996) on NBC.
West Philadelphia → Bel-Air — star vehicle that became a language.
Key cast
- Will Smith as Will Smith
- James Avery as Philip Banks
- Janet Hubert as Vivian Banks
- Daphne Maxwell Reid as Vivian Banks
- Alfonso Ribeiro as Carlton Banks
- Karyn Parsons as Hilary Banks