BLACK. WHITE. on F/X

http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/orig...hite/main.html

This is my most anticipated new show. A white family and a black family swap races to get first hand experience of the racial divide in the country. Premieres this Wednesday.

Agreed. However I think if most people saw the white family just randomly on the street, they would think they looked wierd but wouldn't necessarily jump to the conclusion that they were in black face. The kids transition the best. The daughter kinda of looks like Jessica Alba after her transformation and the son looks like that actor who plays Matt on Nip/Tuck.

I'm not sure how in depth this show will get, but as a psychologist I'm curious to see how these transformations affects the individual as opposed to how they are able to function in society. Will they change their behaviors to conform to how they think the other race acts or if they will just be themselves. Will they perceive the world around them differently? How will they interpret other people's actions towards themselves? As a case study, the results of this experiment are specific for these two families and can't be generalized to the population at large. But its still fascinating to see whether any insights can be gleaned from their experience that could be beneficial to everyone.

Yup. It's called "stereotype threat". There's tons of research detailing this phenomenom. It not only occurs on a racial level, it can occur on a gender level as well. For example, our society tends to label women as bad at math and science. Research has found that when women are cued to become aware of their gender right before taking a math or science test, they perform much worse than when they aren't.

I guess we should just ignore the situation then. Pretend its not a problem, just like homelessness.

I never said this show would solve the problem. It's goal is to open up a much needed dialouge that some people, particularly in this thread, don't care to have because apparently racism is old news.

It's only six episodes.

I don't think that's the case. Much of the first episode dealt with how the participants, particularly the fathers, perceive and interpret the world around them.

This is a perfect example of why its so hard to eradicate racism. It's the mental aspect of it. While the Civil Rights Movement ended segregation, it has not led to the elimination of attitudes, habits and thought processes ingrained in entire populations over generations. The guy in the focus group who absentmindedly wipes his hands after touching a black person is a perfect example of this. But the fact that he recognizes what happened and is consciously attempting to alter his behavior is what sets him apart from people like Bruno, who won't even acknowledge that racism exists. His belief that bad things only happen to bad people is why our society aren't able to have an open dialouge about race relations in America.

I do agree that Brian seems to see racism where they may not be any. But at the same time once you've experienced racism, its hard not to see it everywhere. I think if at the end of the show Bruno recognizes that some people are treated differently because of the color of their skin and if Brian learns not to assume everyone is "sizing him up" then the show did its job.

So far, I think the daughter is getting the most out of this show. She seems to really want to understand what its like to be in another person's shoes. The poetry class was a great way to do that because it enabled her and the other kids to express themselves in a very personal way. I also loved that she didn't want to change her behavior to conform to racial expectations. In the previews, it showed the White family learning how to talk "Black" and vice versa for the Black family. That's exactly what I didn't want to see happen. Hopefully, the show will address the issue intelligently and not just focus on stereotypes.

Bummer man. But some of that stuff can go either way.

The article mentions that the pro shop is "presumably" at the same golf club. While watching the show, I didn't presume anything. I just thought he went to a strip mall or something to buy the shoes. And I'm not sure how they were portrayed to be racist. All Brian said was that he personally had never had a salesperson actually put the shoe on for him. He never said or implied that that particular store or that particular salesperson would not do the same if he had been black.

Also, whether or not the poetry teachers know Rose is white is irrelevant. It's how she interacts with the other kids and they interact with her. I actually assumed that they did know, because they made a point of saying earlier in the show that due to her age she had to have a chaperone at all times to make sure she was okay. But despite my assumption, as mentioned in the article they did announce that the teachers knew.

Again, I went into this show expected that certain interactions would be staged and conversation forced (just as all "reality" shows do), but the people involved in this show aren't actors and their experiences are real. I still think its a worthwhile experiment and I'm gonna see how it plays out.

The golf outing was such a small part of the show and the goal wasn't to show racism, but to see if Brian would pass as White (which he did). I don't know why people keep focusing on it. The more important question is where the fuck is that bar located that Brian works at. That hidden camera footage is downright scary.

I'm gonna pull a Matt Goldberg and say that until you've actually seen an episode of this show, your opinion doesn't count.