TV Review
“Black. White.†is Shallow and Pointless
To call FX’s new reality show “Black. White.†shallow would be an understatement. It’s also pointless, exceptionally trite, filled with cringe-worthy stereotypes, and teeming with double standards.
This overhyped show about two families trading races is standard reality TV. One of the show’s producers is rapper Ice Cube, who also raps (sings?) the title song. “Please don’t believe the hype,†he says. Yes, please don’t.
The two families volunteered to live together in a house in the Los Angeles area for six weeks last summer and undergo hours-long makeup sessions to switch races. The Sparkes, a black family from Atlanta, are Brian, a 41-year-old contractor, his wife Renee, a 38-year-old office manager, and their son Nick, 17. The Marcotulli-Wurgels from California are Carmen, a 47-year-old location scout, her shack-up boyfriend, Bruno Marcotulli, a 47-year-old teacher, and her 17-year-old daughter Rose.
The makeup was done by Hollywood makeup and special-effects expert Keith Vanderlaan, but it didn’t convince me. For instance, Renee looked like a black woman in a bad blonde wig and light-colored foundation, and Carmen’s face looked as if it were slathered in shiny brown grease paint. The blonde, blue-eyed Rose’s transformation was the most convincing, right down to the big “ghetto†hoop earrings.
The point of the show was evident. The white family, on the defensive the whole time, was supposed to experience “racist†America as blacks. They were obviously tense and very careful about what they said, which resulted in lines like this from Carmen: “I love black. Visually and heart-wise, there’s a warmth.â€
Whatever that means.
Each family was supposed to teach the other how to pass as members of the other race, but it was all one way. Bruno showed off his “black walk,†to which Brian said, “That’s not really bad.†Then Brian showed Bruno the “black†handshake. Cringe-worthy fare.
The smartest in the bunch was Rose. As she watched this ridiculous exchange, she asked, “Are you saying most black people do that and, therefore, I should do that? All of us are trying to learn about the other race…but it’s so much like in the language of stereotype.â€
Yes, Rose. That’s exactly what it’s like, and that’s the point of the show.
The double standards were evident as the black family said things the white family could never get away with. Renee implied that white women were nosy, and I waited in vain for Carmen to say something in response to the generalization.
In another strange scene, Brian, who’s apparently watched too many B horror flicks, said that whites hear a noise and want to investigate, while blacks want to get away and find out later what the noise was. And storm chasing is “white,†Brian adds. “Your nature is to be more curious than ours.†Very enlightening. Such banal chatter was typical and predictably one-sided. For example, we don’t get to hear Bruno and Carmen talk about black people’s natures.
More stereotypes are played out in “Black. White.†as the Sparkes coach the Marcotulli-Wurgels on how to behave as blacks. Brian tells Bruno to slouch in his chair and not sit up straight, and Carmen was careful not to be “overly inquisitive†while in blackface.
In the pilot episode, we see evidence of so-called racism through Brian, who goes to a shoe store in whiteface. “As a white guy I’m relaxed when I’m shopping,†he says. He’s waited on by a white salesman, who does what sales people do in upscale shoe stores: puts the shoes on the customer’s feet. Brian is amazed. “It’s never happened to me black in 40 years, and the first time I go and buy shoes as a white, I have it done,†he insists.
This is what passes for racism in 2006. To test his hypothesis, Brian should have gone back to the same store without the makeup.
Later, Brian in whiteface applies for and lands a job as a bartender in a mostly-white neighborhood. On his first day, he’s mindful of how he speaks, associating proper grammar with speaking “white.†He asked a white patron about the neighborhood, who said it had remained mostly white, which he implied was safer. Brian was shocked.
In another so-called racist encounter, Brian (no make-up) and Bruno (in blackface) were walking down the street and passed a group of whites. Brian asked Bruno if he noticed how the people avoided looking at them. Bruno didn’t notice. The two men clearly have different outlooks on life. The overly sensitive Brian has been conditioned to see signs of prejudice everywhere, real or perceived, and the optimistic Bruno hasn’t. “I’m trying to enlighten you to the fact that you’ve got to approach life in a certain way and not expect you’re being mistreated because you’re black,†said Bruno.
Sounds simple, but it works for me.
I wondered why there was a viewer discretion warning at the beginning of the show, and I found out by the show’s end. A frustrated Brian eventually lets loose with a profanity-laced speech and accuses Bruno of seeing only what he wants to see. The irony of Brian’s tirade is lost on him.
A more edifying documentary would be one based on class differences rather than skin color. For instance, the black, married, professional, and middle-class Sparkes cohabitating with a black, poor, working or welfare-dependant inner-city mother with fatherless children would be quite instructive. The crisis of fatherless children is infinitely more important than petty surface perceptions and prejudices about race.
But such a show would be too real for reality TV.
Originally published March 15, 2006, at Townhall.com
