I swear, John Howard Griffin would be spinning in his grave if he saw what was released on DVD just last month.
Don’t know who John Howard Griffin was? He was the journalist who wrote the internationally-renowned book “Black like me”, which was published in the early ’60s. The book follows his experiences as a black man traveling through the South in 1959. Did I mention that he was white? Yes, with judicious use of dyes, a drug normally used to treat vitiligo (Michael Jackson’s skin affliction) and a UV lamp, he managed to effectively transform himself into a black man. He thought that becoming black would be the only way that a white person could understand what it was to be black. And we’re talking about the Deep South at a time when racial relations were not exactly at their healthiest.
Now, fast forward a little over 40 years later and move to a nice part of Los Angeles and you’ll find the show “Black.White.” which premiered on FX last March. The brainchild of R.J. Cutler and Ice Cube (an authority on race relations if I’ve ever seen one), “Black.White.” is supposed to examine racial relations between white and black people by slathering two families in mediocre makeup, setting them up to clash, milking every conflict for all it’s worth, misrepresenting what actual racism is and equating idiocy with enlightenment. At least, that’s what comes out of it.
It can be hard to tell what was intended, aside from some shallow attempt to deliver “edutainment.” The show was hyped on Oprah before its release. It was built up as if it would be some sort of grand sociological experiment that would foster positive race relations in America for years to come. Step into someone else’s shoes, greater love through empathy, et cetera. Sure, in the previews the dad looked more like he was from Calcutta than Harlem, but come on-Oprah!
As noble as the basic idea might be, “Black.White.” bombs at educating and, for the most part, at entertaining. The racial switcheroo yields something of interest, but the show can’t be sustained by that gimmick alone.
As for really learning what it’s like to be a member of another race? You might learn that sometimes people make debatably racist comments, that some people don’t know the difference between innate and learned behavior or that a fake white guy might be treated differently than a real black man when buying shoes (although we can’t be sure), but you won’t see the point of view. Instead, you’ll walk smack dab into racial stereotypes that are validated by the members of those races as racial habit. So much for education.
Speaking of education, VCU had the black father, Brian Sparks, and the white father, Bruno Marcotulli, speak before the students on “issues of race,” because being a low-grade celebrity from a TV miniseries entitles you to enter the lecture circuit as an authority on whatever subject the show was about.
At the end of the day, however, there’s only one thing that can be said about the “Black.White.” DVD: It’ll set you back about 30 bucks. If you do end up spending the money, you can at least be comforted in knowing that the university probably paid a bit more to have Sparks and Marcotulli speak.