Anyone else catch the premiere of Black. White. on the FX channel last night at 10p? It was an interesting show. The premise is that a white family and a black family go in black face and white face to see what each others' race experiences in a typical day. I watched most of the hour, Lady watched the whole thing.
The makeup ain't half bad. The black to white father reminded us of Eddie Murphy's white face character from SNL. And at work today, I noted how it also looked like Dave Chappelle's white face characther. That dusty blonde-ish hair and a funny doofy moustache. I initially thought that the white to black daughter looked horrible, but now, looking at the shot on the website, not too shabby. The white to black dad just looked off to me.
Some interesting happenings already. The 'new' people sat in focus groups discussing race. In the white focus group one person mentioned how after shaking hands with a black person, they instinctively felt the need to wipe their hands afterwards. When the black to white dad went out to get some new golf shoes, the shoe salesperson took his foot in his hand and shoe horned it into the pair he was trying on; that had never ever happened to him before in his forty years. The white to black daughter joined a slam poetry group and got up and shared her stuff on the first day to talk about her new skin color, she was pretty good. I don't think I'd be able to do something like that.
They live in a cushy house somewhere in the 'burbs in nowheresville California [I don't think they mentioned the town]. They come home every night to discuss things as a group. I think that this show will be stereotypically horrible at points and eye opening at others. People will learn things from this show. I hope the editors of the show don't cut it up horribly. I think this show will be very interesting to watch. Squeamish at times, but lessons will be learned. Some of the things that come out of the mouths of the white to black are pretty out there while in context.
To me, the most interesting storyline will be black to white dad's job at the all white bar Leo's where he's the new bartender. During his first day on the job he was talking it up with a customer about the area of town as if he was a newbie. The customer referred to the area as one of the last bastions of all white communities. I think he used the word "stronghold" at one point. He referred to the town where the 'white' bartender should raise his family.
It's interesting to watch as a Korean-American. Asians are typically overlooked when it comes to race relations. We've "out whited the whites" is the saying, but still not addressed at length when it comes to racial studies. Flies on the wall as other races are discussed around and over us.
Wednesdays at 10p.
Chuck Pennacchio will be on the PCNTV call-in program tonight from 7p - 8p. Find PCN on cable in your area. Here in Philly via Comcast it's on channel 63 and if you have digital cable channel 185.