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by R.J. Carter Published: September 10, 2006
Black. White. takes "Soul Man" and mixes it up with The Real World to make it a reality show with a social studies lesson. Two families -- one white, one black -- are going to live together in the same house to learn about the different cultures. Oh, and occassionally they'll all end up in makeup and go out as "the opposite race" -- their words, not mine. The Wurgel family is made up of Bruno, Carmen and their teenaged daughter, Rose. The Sparks family -- Brian, Renee and their son Nick -- are from Georgia and have come out to California to participate in producer R.J. Cutler's social experiment. Brian claims he knows what it's like to suffer racism; Bruno doesn't believe it really exists, but is looking forward to experiencing someone getting in his face and calling him racial names. Carmen says she was raised by parents who were part of the Civil Rights movement, and is really looking forward to gaining new experiences. She's probably the most naive racial liberal since Michael Stivic. She actually uses the word "jivin'" to describe black communications. And during elocution lessons where Renee and Carmen are each trained to talk white and black, Renee is aghast when Carmen pops out with a "You, bitch." To be fair to Carmen, the word was on the list of words they were to be using, but Renee never really lets it go throughout the series.
Not that Nick doesn't learn about racism there. Not from the kids -- from his father. Yes, Nick -- after having told his classmates that he is actually black -- doesn't really care when they joke around and use the "N" word. It doesn't offend Nick at all, but Brian and Renee are completely dumbfounded. Brian refers to Nick and Rose's generation as one that doesn't see color (almost as though that's a bad thing) and Brian has to take Nick aside and teach him what racism is. Brian has a much harder time trying to teach that lesson to Bruno. When they both go out as black men, they both experience the same events at the same time, but are both living in too different realities. When a woman moves to the side of the sidewalk as they go by, Brian sees fear. Bruno sees a woman who wasn't given enough room on the sidewalk. In a clothing store, when they're approached by a salesman, Brian sees them being checked out. Bruno sees himself getting service. Watching the Bruno/Brian battle wage across six episodes makes this series an exhausting one. All of the participants except Brian and Bruno make friends in the "outside the show" world while in their makeup, then come out to them afterward to gauge their reactions. For Renee, Rose, and Carmen, it's because they felt like frauds. For Nick, it was because Rose talked him into doing it (the etiquette class was already catching on that something was up anyway.) Carmen befriends a black radio talk-show host, and gets a lesson in black history. Renee -- after much searching in the arts and crafts community, because that's what white women do -- finally makes friends with a white woman who stands up against racism when she sees it. But the star of the series is definitely young Rose Wurgel. Intelligent, honest, and erudite, the producers smartly spend a majority of their focus on Rose's progress with the kids in her poetry group, including the emotional coming out and subsequent experiences she has with the different members, up to and through the final poetry slam exhibition, and a possible relationship with her new black friend, Devon. (Nothing tests white parents' attitudes toward racism more than bringing a nice black gentleman home from a date.) When it was all over, I felt that some of the participants needed for there to be racisim, an attitude that simply perpetuates the problem. The producers also played it mostly safe -- for instance, they didn't take the Sparks family into northwest Arkansas, or the Wurgels into Watts; at least, not without makeup. It may have also been more fair to have two non-actor families involved. While the Sparkses don't have any other credits to their name, Rose Wurgel (aka Rose Bloomfeld) has been in a couple of projects, and Bruno Wurgel (aka Bruno Marcotulli) has been on television shows from MacGyver to JAG, and a pair of Leslie Nielson movies. Which leaves me feeling just a little cheated. In the end, however, no truth is discovered, because the truth was always looked for as something that was black or white, and it's not. The truth is in black and white. The two-disc set is filled with special effects. Each episode has optional commentary with Executive Producer R.J. Cutler, who is always joined by members of the cast and associate producers. In addition the viewer will also find...
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