Black White
I caught up with the show Black White yesterday and had some thoughts. Interesting show. If you haven’t seen it, the premise is that a black family of three and a white family of three are going to “switch races.” Each race is going to lead the other race through the “project” to hopefully illustrate the experiences of either side.
For those of you that have seen it, you have some feelings about either family. I, for one, think the daughter is probably the most reflexive about the experience. But I wonder if the show is promoting an understanding of race that only focuses on the binary of black and white. It seems that a bunch of the middle ground is lost when the issue becomes polarized. Also, the experience seems primarily framed within the opposition of the two. In the beginning, the father of the black family commented that he experienced oppression from both whites, because he is black, but also blacks because he is lighter skinned. After that opening comment, the issue has been dropped.
Do you think this show highlights race in a way that frames the debate in a binary of black/white? What are the consequences of this? Also, if anyone has comments about the different reactions from the family members, I’m interested. As I said before, I’m most intrigued by the daughter, but there’s a lot of other stuff going on.
Thoughts?
UPDATE: I saw the last episode of the show last night. Interestingly enough, it seemed that the producers where trying to find some reconciliation between the characters. They had group hugs and tried to make nice, but I wonder if it is even possible in this scenario. I thought that Bruno was racist. If so, why would Brian, Renee, or Nick want to be friendly with him? The other thought I had was about Nick. They took Nick to the “Hall of Tolerance” (funny South Park reference comes to mind here) where he witnessed the mediated racism of this country’s history. The parents believed that he got something out of that experience, but I had my doubts. Nick was an interesting character. I don’t think I could really figure him out.
Anyone else have thoughts about the last episode?
I caught up with the show Black White yesterday and had some thoughts. Interesting show. If you haven’t seen it, the premise is that a black family of three and a white family of three are going to “switch races.” Each race is going to lead the other race through the “project” to hopefully illustrate the experiences of either side.
For those of you that have seen it, you have some feelings about either family. I, for one, think the daughter is probably the most reflexive about the experience. But I wonder if the show is promoting an understanding of race that only focuses on the binary of black and white. It seems that a bunch of the middle ground is lost when the issue becomes polarized. Also, the experience seems primarily framed within the opposition of the two. In the beginning, the father of the black family commented that he experienced oppression from both whites, because he is black, but also blacks because he is lighter skinned. After that opening comment, the issue has been dropped.
Do you think this show highlights race in a way that frames the debate in a binary of black/white? What are the consequences of this? Also, if anyone has comments about the different reactions from the family members, I’m interested. As I said before, I’m most intrigued by the daughter, but there’s a lot of other stuff going on.
Thoughts?
UPDATE: I saw the last episode of the show last night. Interestingly enough, it seemed that the producers where trying to find some reconciliation between the characters. They had group hugs and tried to make nice, but I wonder if it is even possible in this scenario. I thought that Bruno was racist. If so, why would Brian, Renee, or Nick want to be friendly with him? The other thought I had was about Nick. They took Nick to the “Hall of Tolerance” (funny South Park reference comes to mind here) where he witnessed the mediated racism of this country’s history. The parents believed that he got something out of that experience, but I had my doubts. Nick was an interesting character. I don’t think I could really figure him out.
Anyone else have thoughts about the last episode?
posted by Aaron Hess at 1:12 PM
1 Comments:
I meant to watch this!!!
It is kinda weird reading your writing, I don't think I have ever seen anything you wrote that wasn't about the coral reefs.
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