Black. White., Episode 1 (Kat's Take)

I agree with most of what Cate said, so rather than repeat it all I'll try to hit some other points.

1. One I have to repeat - I totally agree that Rose is the best. I was embarrassed for her about some of the things her parents were saying. It will be interesting to follow what sort of tension springs up between Rose and her parents. And there will have to be some, because my God, how could they be so clueless? (And yeah, how did she manage to be so with-it with those parents? And how did they get picked for being liberal and open-minded, anyway?)

2. Not really important, but - how often do they take all the make-up on and off? How long does it take? It seems like they're constantly going back and forth. In some ways, I think some sort of "total immersion" would be better than "Oh, I get to be me again when I get home tonight."

3. Cate mentioned the disparity between the couples' first reactions to each other in make-up, which I also noticed. But I think they glossed over a more general issue here: it must be pretty traumatic to have your spouse or child or parent suddenly look totally different, regardless of the nature of the difference. I mean, I once came home from college to discover that my father had grown a beard, and that freaked me out. I think all the participants were really brave to have gone through that transformation not only of themselves but also of the people closest to them.

4. The "focus groups" seemed like a really odd thing to have first. It was very interesting that it seemed clear to all of the participants except Bruno that their place was to watch and observe and learn. And. What was with Bruno there? He just... lied. Made stuff up. My issue with this went far beyond his use of the "n-word" (which I agree he seems far too obsessed with). I mean, I know that the whole premise of the show is basically a lie, but there is a difference between altering your appearance and seeing how this changes the way people act toward you, which seems to be the point of the show, and altering your appearance and using this as a way of presenting "proof" of your own expectations via a totally invented "anecdote." The latter, what Bruno did, must appear to be an assertion of his superiority. And his "it's all in your head/how you act" seems an extension of the all-too-common "if you work hard you'll be fine" view he presented in his intro as having been handed down by his father. At first I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, thinking maybe he was just clueless, but once he started trying to invalidate the black people's experiences, um, nope. The world isn't all sunshiny just because you say so.

5. "Immigration" seems to have become a code word for "anyone not like me." (This came up in the bar scene.) Is it more socially acceptable to say "I'm concerned about immigration" than "I don't want to live near black/non-English speaking/Asian/gay/Muslim/etc. people"? Why?

6. Let me preface this one by saying that I am not saying, a la Bruno, that racism is in one's head. But I thought that it was not entirely coincidental that Bruno's position, basically, was "I acted like myself and people treated me the same" and Brian's was "I acted differently and people treated me differently." I think there are two things going on here. The first one is the obvious premise: some people treat people differently based on the color of their skin. The other is subtler but I think at least as important and valid: when he looked white, Brian felt free to do things that he, for whatever reason, felt he could not do as a black man. And people interacted with him differently based at least partially on these actions, I'd say, not just his skin color. I think this issue of internalized racism may end up being more interesting than the obvious external issue.

7. I am also cynical enough to wonder how much of the above had to do with filming/presentation. "Hey, we have to surprise the viewers in the first show - how about if the white guy doesn't actually encounter any racism when he's black?"

8. As predicted, the issue of class was barely mentioned, if at all. I probably just missed it, but how much did they actually tell us about the families' backgrounds? Other than that both saw themselves as "typical"? Do they have similar educational and economic backgrounds? (This article tells me that all the adults are "college-educated.")

9. I was annoyed at how they kept saying "no one has ever done this before." Haven't you read Black Like Me, people?

I actually have at least one other big issue I want to write about, but this is getting long and we have a whole week between episodes so I think I will save it for another post in a few days.

Comments

[mamacate]

Yes. I was nodding my head in vigorous agreement when I read your comments about Bruno's behavior in the focus group. I admit that it would have been interesting to see how the other focus group participants reacted to that statement, though they didn't really show that. Of course it could have been one of those parts where I had my hands over my eyes and was squealing "shut up! SHUT UP!" too loudly to be able to hear the TV. Just saying. But I'm guessing it would have been one of those "okaaaaay. next..." kind of reactions. I guess that, if he didn't have an agenda to PUSH that perspective, I'd be okay with him floating that idea to see how people responded to a black person saying that. Yeah, minus the N word. But in the context of what came after, very not okay.

Having the focus groups at the beginning, I think, was an attempt to get things moving, to give the participants something to talk about even if nothing happened early on that was really challenging. I think it was also an interesting (and challenging) inital foray into engaging issues of race from the other side.

Interesting about immigration being a code word. I think you're absolutely right. What makes it okay to be racist out loud in terms of immigration and not in terms of domestic differences? I suppose anti-immigrant statements don't threaten the "greatest country" idea--that *as long as you're an American* you can achieve anything. So we want to keep other people from playing in that pool, keep a lid on things, etc. That's not as dangerous as admitting that equality of opportunity does NOT exist in this country.

I actually think immersion would have been too close to pretending that this actually represented a transferred experience. I think the moving back and forth highlights the limits of the exercise. And that's a good thing.

I have mixed feelings about the class issues. I am not sure I agree about the centrality of class in this situation. In some ways, I do think class can affect how one relates to racism--I think that whites with low SES backgrounds may be more likely to subscribe to a "bootstraps" belief system, and to deny racism and to actively perpetrate racism because of a perception of scarce resources and "unfair advantages" in an enviornment where any advantage is rare. But I think that class may be overstated as a mediating force for high SES blacks. Regardless of who you are, racism will affect you, and while high SES blacks have many opportunities (the underrepresentation of blacks in the ranks of this country's high SES population notwithstanding), they're still black when being pulled over for a traffic stop, walking down the street, or buying golf shoes for that matter. I actually think keeping class somewhat separate from this exercise is worthwhile, but I'm interested in hearing more about the other perspective.

Okay, have we reached the longest comment in history quotient? Not yet? Oh good.

[Minh TV-ologist]

You're right, this has been done before ... I can't find the video, but here's the transcript:

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/84/84iwhitelikeeddie.phtml

[Thorny]

I forgot this show was on, and usually avoid reality TV in general, so didn't plan on watching it. But this discussion is so interesting, I may have to change my mind.

I was struck by your mention of class influences in all of this - I remember hearing several years ago about research somebody did where they asked a bunch of people how they would describe themselves. The people who described themselves as "middle class" included people who made as little as $30,000/yr up to folks who made something like $250,000/yr.

So while I can see how they don't want to make a /big/ issue about class, I do think it would be interesting to at least have mentioned.