Black. White.
Reality Show/ Social Commentary in the skin of another ... on DVD
Social Commentary on Race in America at its best or worst ... I really don't know. You decide.
Black. White. arrives on DVD this week in a 2 disc set with commentary from its creators, plus several featurettes.
The reality series asked the question, "What is it like to live in someone else's skin colour?" and they literally went to go find that out with a black and white family in extensive make up and prosthetics.
Right from the beginning, 17 year-old Rose Wurgel (bless her) a white girl sees the problem with the experiment when she enrolls in a slam poetry class in the guise of a black girl. As she so eloquently points out at the family gathering "... all of us are trying to learn about the other race but it's so much in the language of stereotype". But perhaps the most revealing of the differences are seen just by watching the casting videos.
In the Wurgel casting video, Rose lead most of the interview and proved to be the lone intelligent soul who, what it seemed like, needed to be persuaded to enter into the social experiment. By contrast in the Sparks casting video, the parents seem to lead the show having their 15 year-old son Nick, know his place. They discussed differences in lifestyles, mindset and even discipline between white and black families.
What irked me when watching the series was Carmen Wurgel, in the best of intentions, repeatedly putting her foot in her mouth and not knowing why people became offended. On top of that, she defended her statements saying she was expressing herself honestly and that she would not apologize. I will, however, give her credit for raising a point, albeit unwittingly missing it as well saying, "I don't want to have to think about what I'm going to say before I say it.
Yeah ... learn how if the rest of us have to.
