Rose took the high road: "I do not think we will ever really be done but, hey, at least we can say we have begun a life-long journey." She later reflected: "It was not all nice things said, but it was real."
As if the show could not be more contrived, the next scene shows the two families meeting with a therapist. This just starts another argument as Bruno says he can’t believe Brian said he learned nothing from the experiment. The therapist asks Brian if he is willing to keep trying to get Bruno to see the light.
”As much as I would love to give up on Bruno in this project, I can’t,” Brian replies.
Overall, this show was very disappointing but there were a few times when I got excited. With this statement from Rose, for example, it sounds like they have the right idea:
Until you open your mind and your ears to other peoples’ words and experiences you can’t make a difference. If you got it in you to accept and forgive and move and learn, beautiful — you are changing the world.
If only the rest of the families had put that idea into practice during the series.
Sigh.
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.