Posted on 03/08/2006 5:05:44 AM PST by Panerai
“Black. White.” Series premiere tonight at 10 on FX. Grade: B
FX’s “Black. White.” proves idiots come in all colors.
This “trading races” reality series from executive producers Ice Cube, R.J. Cutler and Matt Alavarez takes two families, one Caucasian, one African-American, and thanks to a skilled makeup job, switches their skin tones so they can experience how the other half lives - mired in patronizing stereotypes, judging from the debut (tonight at 10).
The Sparks clan - 41-year-old contractor Brian; wife Renee, a 38-year-old office manager; and 17-year-old son Nick - are initially repulsed and amused by their transformations into whites. Brian is confident he has nothing to learn, while Renee sizes up their counterparts, the Wurgel family - Carmen, a 47-year-old location scout; 18-year-old daughter Rose; and Carmen’s boyfriend, Bruno Marcotulli, a 47-year-old teacher - and tenses for arguments. The two families must reside together during their cross-cultural experiment.
Marcotulli uses the N-word freely, hoping someone will accost him in his African-American disguise. He believes he has the perfect remedy for racial slurs: Brush them aside with good cheer. “I get joy because I put joy out,” he says.
For their first ventures into the world as whites, the elder Sparks goes to the golf course while Nick attends, of all places, etiquette school. Any teenage boy who attends etiquette school is doing so because his parents are flushed with a different color, the one belonging to greenbacks. “Black. White.” trips over the socioeconomic issues coloring the racial divide but ignores them. A better idea would have been to send Nick to the mall for the favorite sport of all teenagers, hanging out, and see how he would have been received.
(Excerpt) Read more at theedge.bostonherald.com ...
My reaction?
dude, lighten up. It's "ENTERTAINMENT" programming. It'll live and die on its own merits. At this point, any publicity is good publicity.
Personally, I wish Mel Brookes had written/produced it. THAT WAY it would be funny AND hard hitting.
Personally I thought Blazing Saddles was funny, ribald and insightful. OK it was a B movie, but I love it.
I don't believe I've ever met a caucasian.
OH NO! Those white imposters will learn about our secret meetings and plots to opress black people. They may also learn about those large checks the govt secretly sends to all white people. We must get this show cancelled.
Considering my entire family is multi-ethnic and multi-racial and international, as many families are today, this program seems to be a "Black Like Me," ripoff.
I wonder. Do the Hollywood inhabitants simply exist to promote stereotypes, or are they all merely caricatures themselves? Maybe they truly are simulacrums developed and existing only on film.
I still cannot believe that Streisand is anything other than a joke.
I have, before the little Orthodox mission in my town was founded, when I attended what's now our mother parish about an hour from my home, there was a guy from Georgia who used to come sometimes (he'd been a coach for the Soviet Olympic fencing team before emigrating).
O,
Well, it's a business. The entertainment business.
At it's core then, it follows that that line of business exists to sell entertainment, not solutions to social problems or deep lines of inquiry. That being the case, it seems the business model would demand that recognizable and simplistic stereotypes be not only perpetrated, but celebrated.
And I agree- "Black Like Me" did it first, did it best, and did it ~50 years ago.
But the funniest one was Eddie Murphy's short "White Like Eddie":
http://snltranscripts.jt.org/84/84iwhitelikeeddie.phtml
Don't laugh. My wife used to teach at an inner city elemetary school that was 99% black kids.
One day, when discussing economics or math or whatever, she asked the class how she got her new car. Hands shot up. Every single kid told her that she got her new car because the government gives white people bigger checks than it gives black people. That's why she lived in a nice town house while they lived in the projects.
They were all absolutely convinced that was the case.
That, hopefully, will take care of itself ... what rubbish.
Whoever produced this mess watched the movie "Watermelon Man" too many times.
This wont be around long folks.
On the ads I have seen for the show I would say the make up jobs are not that good. I wonder if everyone who encounters these people will be fooled.
In any case, I wonder if the whole theme of the show will be "PC" or if it will actually take a fair minded look at race relations.
"...that line of business exists to sell entertainment, not solutions to social problems or deep lines of inquiry..."
That statement is telling. Unfortunately, as that noted thinker, Clooney, seems to believe they foment change.
(I wonder. Does a celebrity like Clooney strain to think on the pot? Is that the whole subliminal message in their statements: "I made a big one this morning?")
I'm a tad grumpy this am.
The white to black transformation is convincing, but the black to white makeup is horrible, IMO. The black family just looks like a light skinned black family,no one is going to be fooled.
Even if people would have been fooled by the make-up, the camera crew following them around might be a tip-off that something funny is going on.
O,
You know, I wonder about how they think. To be more specific, I don't believe Hollywood lefties think at all.
I mean, if you're that pre-possessed of your own superiority, why think at all? Your position must always be the correct one because you're you!
"One day, when discussing economics or math or whatever, she asked the class how she got her new car. Hands shot up. Every single kid told her that she got her new car because the government gives white people bigger checks than it gives black people. That's why she lived in a nice town house while they lived in the projects. "
So they already knew our secret, this is very disturbing.
But seriously, the response of those kids makes sense if in their world money comes from the govt and the concept of working for money is nearly unknown. If you have more it must be because someone gave it to you and since you are white it must be due racism. What a sick subculture.
You call it rubbish... Did you watch it... Have you seen it?
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