But in order to learn, Bruno has to listen. And he repeatedly demonstrated he was more interested in talking and spouting off about his generalizations about blacks, rappers, and other things than in actually learning from the experience. Bruno, put simply, spent much of the series talking out of his ass. He might as well have stuck his head in it for all he learned.
The series can be divided into two sections: one in which the members of the two families interact with strangers and the other when the family members interact with each other. The former seemed more promising than the latter but both did not really work.
Playing With Strangers
The show kept taking decent concepts, in which the participants could learn from others, and then messing with them. For example, while in blackface, Rose was learning from the members about their experiences, the obstacles they face, and what they really think. But once she decides – or the show’s executives decided for this girl – that she should tell them she is really white, then the entire situation shifts. Once she reveals her true color, her poems and other comments invariably become attempts to bridge the racial divide; they come out sounding more like sermons and lectures than poems.
For the final episode, they each are to give a live performance of a single poem they wrote. When Rose practiced hers, though, it sucked. It sounds more, as another poet put it, like a paper on an assigned topic. Another poet tells her to just “throw it away.” She writes something new and delivers it live but it, too, is meaningless tripe about how difficult it is to be her, a white girl struggling to understand the world.
In reviews and comments I have read, some ask why it is only the white family who needs to learn. That’s a fair question. But the main lesson the black family learns repeatedly, while in white makeup, is that people may act different if they do not know their real race.
On this final episode, for example, Brian and Renee go to a bar in white face and Brian is amazed that a white woman leaves her wallet on the bar while she goes to the bathroom. Brian asks the woman about this and she says she left her purse there because she trusts people. He asks her if she would do it again knowing he noticed it and she said yes. Away from her, Brian and Renee say that would not happen if she knew they were black or if there were other blacks on the premises.
Article comments
1 - A.L. Harper
Scott -
I love this article! Great writing!
2 - Jewels
Scott - Have you ever read the book, "Black LIke Me?" Just curious, no malice intended, just, sometimes I feature things in post I have not actually put my lips around... Anyway, I did -- 6 times. GREAT read. I took to this book in my teens while growing up in a racially impacted area. Awesome premise for its time - but I really don't think the TV show gave it (the idea) the creedence, value and due the book did to this idea of switching races, not matched by the book and author.
Enjoyed your article.
3 - Scott Butki
A.L., hanks.
I never read the book but from all accounts the book is good while as I've described the show is really bad.
4 - Dan
It could be that the reason you think the show was such a failure is because you hoped that your view of abundant white racism and black victimization would be substantiated. When it didn't happen, you might be disappointed.
My take on the show is that, despite disproportionate attempts to "root out" white racists, the editors weren't able to "michael moore" the film enough to create a desired impression.
Perhaps the calculation was that Bruno would have been a hostile observer to any shenanigans to slant a story-line. The producers could have probably shut people, like Bruno, up with some monetary enhancement, but maybe they, like you, figured the desired impression would become self-evident, and didn't secure such a deal before hand.
Bruno was particularly vindicated in the "jumper-cables in the parking lot" scene. This was going to be Brian's sure-fire outing of white racists.
At the end, I found it touching that they sort of bonded. I think it was sincere. There was a commonality among them. It got me thinking.
The best way to get people of different races to bond-- and that's whats needed-- is to place them in circumstances where they're forced to struggle against a common adversary. In this case, it was the show. Even though points weren't made regarding who's more racist, the actors suffered a common stress that they had to endure to end the thing. Bruno and Brian still disagree but I'd bet thay would buy the other a drink at a bar.
A historical common adversary would be a war. That's not popular these days, and nobody really feels threatened by Islamic terrorists...yet.
5 - Dan
I forgot to mention, that the most commonly observed example of my 'bonding through shared struggle' phenomenon is in sports. White and black athletes, on the same team, harbor almost zero racial animostity.