...And I can honestly my jaw dropped. I just couldn't believe it. Hollywood makeup effects artist Keith VanderLaan (whose work on "Big Momma's House" and "White Chicks" has not gone unnoticed) has done the unthinkable by transforming a black family into a white family, and a white family into a black family. The Sparks, is the black family (Brian, his wife Renee, son Nick) from an Atlanta suburb and the white Wurgel-Marcotulli family (Carmen, her live-in boyfriend Bruno, Carmen's daughter Rose) from Santa Monica, California, must live together and walk and talk, as the opposite race.
Now before I heard about this show, courtesy of the rants of the many EB Soldiers at Public Enemy's official website message boards, I have to say I first met "Black. White." with great skepticism. But as I heard more about it, and even though I agree largely with the rants of the EB Soldiers, I was still enticed. I wanted to see more, and what I saw tonight was nothing short of an outstanding examination of how the black and white races interact with one another and as each other.
As a 20-year-old black male, "Black. White." not only forced to me to take into account what whites think and experience, but it also made room for me to ponder my own conceptions about myself, and my fellow brothers and sisters in America. Bruno and Carmen and Brian and Renee all attend separate black/white focus groups, in disguise, and each gets a taste of what the other race feels about the other race. Before the meetings, though, the participants gave their companions advice on how to "act" while listening to the discussion; Brian says Bruno should slouch a little bit and Bruno says Brian should keep an upright, or otherwise proper posture. We can see them nervously squirming in their seats as they all get anxious about the discussions taking place. I couldn't help but feel the heat too.
Hopefully, this show will open eyes, minds, and hearts about walking a mile in the shoes of somebody different. According to the Style section of today's Washington Post newspaper, the show's creator R.J. Cutler seems to know all about this sort of touchy reality thing. He produced "Super Size Me" (2004) filmmaker Morgan Spurlock's "30 Days" (damn, I really wanted to see that show), which frequently had similar role-swapping role-playing that included a fundamentalist Christian living with a Muslim family and a straight homophobe taking up residence in San Franciso's openly-gay Castro district.
Rapper Ice Cube, who is no stranger to politics and the racial divide in America, also did the opening theme song and is the show's co-producer and that should hopefully draw in more viewers, particularly those who pay attention to political hip-hop.
What we may see on "Black. White." may not be new to a lot of us, and I won't disagree with anyone who says otherwise. What it will do, I hope, is show what America is like from the other side for these six people. It shows much promise. The dynamics of racism, as portrayed often in the media, is sour compared to what really goes on out there. We can no longer turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to this cancerous epidemic in our country.
Now let's see what the other side says.
