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Thursday, March 23, 2006
Black White Nonsense Wait; come back, my story gets better! However, last week I had to travel to NY for some personal business and by late Saturday night, I was so worn out that I ended up watching the first show that even looked remotely interesting. That show happened to be FX’s new reality show “Black White” which is produced by rapper turned actor extraordinaire Ice Cube. The premise of the show is that we have two families, one black and one white, whom will live together in a house for a certain period of time and will be made to look like the opposite of their race; the black family will be turned white and the white family turned black, through the magic of Hollywood makeup. Then, once each family member has been altered, they are to go out and experience the world as a new race and report back to the producers, hilarity ensues. Just from the previews, I thought this show looked ridiculous but you’d be surprised what you’ll watch when you are dog-tired and TNA Impact isn’t on for another hour. As I watched the plot for this episode unfold I had an epiphany based on the behavior of the players in this reality drama. When it comes to race relations, black people in general have the personality of a victim borderline personality disorder. That’s right, I said it, black people in general, when the issue of race comes seem to act like they have borderline personality disorder. Now just what the heck is borderline personality disorder, you are asking? A person with a borderline personality disorder often experiences a repetitive pattern of disorganization and instability in self-image, mood, behavior and close personal relationships. This can cause significant distress or impairment in friendships and work. A person with this disorder can often be bright and intelligent, and appear warm, friendly and competent. They sometimes can maintain this appearance for a number of years until their defense structure crumbles, usually around a stressful situation like the breakup of a romantic relationship or the death of a parent. Relationships with others are intense but stormy and unstable with marked shifts of feelings and difficulties in maintaining intimate, close connections. The person may manipulate others and often has difficulty with trusting others. There is also emotional instability with marked and frequent shifts to an empty lonely depression or to irritability and anxiety. There may be unpredictable and impulsive behavior which might include excessive spending, promiscuity, gambling, drug or alcohol abuse, shoplifting, overeating or physically self-damaging actions such as suicide gestures. The person may show inappropriate and intense anger or rage with temper tantrums, constant brooding and resentment, feelings of deprivation, and a loss of control or fear of loss of control over angry feelings. There are also identity disturbances with confusion and uncertainty about self-identity, sexuality, life goals and values, career choices, friendships. There is a deep-seated feeling that one is flawed, defective, damaged or bad in some way, with a tendency to go to extremes in thinking, feeling or behavior. Under extreme stress or in severe cases there can be brief psychotic episodes with loss of contact with reality or bizarre behavior or symptoms. Even in less severe instances, there is often significant disruption of relationships and work performance. The depression which accompanies this disorder can cause much suffering and can lead to serious suicide attempts. One of the main elements of recognizing someone with BPD is projection of feelings onto others. What the BPD person will typically do, and what I saw the black folks in this show do is ascribe particularly intense and negative emotions to their white counterparts, when they themselves were the ones feeling those emotions. In other words, the black family kept insinuating that the white family was racist or that everything they did was a subtle knock on the black race when in fact it was the black family that continually displayed intolerance. The first example started right at the beginning of the show. The two moms are sitting with their dialect coach to learn how to speak with the inflection of the race they are playing. On the practice sheet in front of them are a list of words, one of which is “bitch.” The white mom then says in what was obviously a playful manner, “Yo bitch!” Now I’m not saying the white woman made the best choice there but haven’t we all made a wet-fart-in-church type joke that we thought was in the spirit of the moment and it turned out not to be so funny. You can accuse her of being a dork and little on the stupid side but she wasn’t being a racist by any stretch of the imagination. However, the black mother of course goes right off the deep end. At that moment and for the majority of the episode, the black mother goes on and on and on and on and on and on about this woman is a racist and nobody calls a black a bitch and blah blah blah. The white practically begs for forgiveness and explains quite clearly that it was an innocent remark bred in naïve stupidity. Not having says the black mother, clearly the white woman is racist in the mind of the black woman. But that’s not all that happened. Now the white woman is in her black person makeup and the two women are shopping the black part of town at a street market. Mind you, the whole purpose of being there is to shop where black people, for what black people might buy. They walk into a clothing store and one of the wares being sold is a dashiki. Granted you don’t see too many average black people donning the dashiki at the mall but at least some do wear them or the shopkeeper wouldn’t be selling them. The white woman sees one she likes and buys it. Of course the black woman sees this yet again as example of racism and that the white has gone “too far.” There were a few more examples where the same thing happens. The white folks try in earnest to experience life as black people and the blacks folks in turn call them racist. That is when it hit me, it isn’t that the while folks on the show hate blacks at all; the black folks hate white people and apparently are uncomfortable saying so out loud. So, like a client with BPD, they project their own feelings of hate and anger on to white people, crying racism at every turn. It isn’t just on “Black White” that I’ve noticed this pattern. I’ve worked with black families, from all different strata’s of life and this pattern has repeated itself . Any challenge or feeling of unease that a black person is made to endure, that would be typical among any other combination of races seems to be met with cries of racism. It is obvious to me that the reason is, deep down, on some level, their exists to this day, a seething hatred of the white race in black people that no matter what happens, will always show itself in times of stress. And as evidenced by the characters on “Black White” this hatred will typically be projected on whites that have long ago learned to accept black people as their brothers and sisters. To paraphrase Dennis Miller, but that’s just my opinion, I could be a racist myself. Blogger News Network is advertiser-supported, and your visits to our advertisers help BNN to meet its expenses. Help keep us afloat! posted by Markkind at 7:31 AM |
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7 Comments:
Have you lost your mind? I think its funny a white male is trying to say how a black woman or even a black family feels. You are making a classic mistake that leads to racism you are painting all black people with the same brush. The white family in the show for the most part seems to know black people only through TV bad 1970s TV at that. We don’t jive and we don’t wear dashikis to church. Did the black woman take offence to the bitch mistake by the white woman yes did she go to far maybe. But you have shown your true self by saying of course she went off of course! What does that mean maybe you should look at your self and see if you aren’t pointing the finger at others for your own racism? I like that you as a white person are putting forth that black people are the true racists and that racism is in our heads. White people ask why race relations haven’t gotten better it hasn’t because a lot of whites believe that relations are great even while they clutch their purses cross the street refuse us service and don’t hire employees with black sounding names
I think the problem here is that you don't see gray. People are either white or black (in appearance, thoughts, word pronounciation, shopping locales, dress and actions, apparently).
But my beef is different. You have woefully misinterpreted the world of borderline personality disorder. Your callous application of this serious and heartbreaking condition to someone you describe as ludicrous is a black and white approach.
Those who suffer from borderline personality dosuffer. Remember that. It isn't a choice, it is an illness. It isn't one that is easily left behind -- it often requires years of daily practice and behavior modification, the undoing of years worth of hurt and disregard of self. It's nothing like being convinced the world is out to get you. It's like being convinced the world SHOULD be out to get you because you're worthless.
You can't possibly make this analogy work. As a mentor of mine liked to say, "There's a pony in there somewhere." I can see a glimmer of the possibility of a point in there. I'd like to see a second draft. Throw this one away and start over.
Funny this blogger should compare the african-american participants in this show to those with BPD. I recently researched BPD online as I have never really understood the term. All that aside... I have to agree with most, if not everything written herein. I have watched the show and read many reviews and several blogs about it and have found that our opinions are very unpopular. I, too, was struck by the unwillingness of Renee to accept Carmen's apology for the "bitch" faux pax.
I would have thought the participants in this show would have been about education, not persecution; however, this doesn't seem to be case on the part of the Sparks. I found Carmen's desire to wear a dashiki to church a bit over the top. I also think that if Renee had told her such Carmen would have appreciated the advice and been done with it. Instead, the Sparks' did nothing but make fun of their white housemates. I found this sad.
I think Bruno's attitude that racism can be overcome by ignoring it is taken to overly simplistic proportions. By the same token, I think that Sparks' look for racism (or find it at least) in even the most mundane of situations. One does wonder how much stirring of the pot the producers are responsible for.
All in all, I find this show a detriment to race relations. Naivte is one thing (call it ignorance if you want) and see that is what Carmen are Bruno are guilty of, but I find the Sparks guilty of malicious racism. Yes, I've said it. There is such a thing as black on white racism and I've tired of the political correctness that prevents this concept from coming to light.
"You are making a classic mistake that leads to racism you are painting all black people with the same brush." This is hilarious. The whole show, Black White, the black folks are showing the white folks the "black experience." It is presented as a homogenized culture, a sum of emotions and actions. A generalization! Then, in a heart tugging moment of vulnerability, in the show the girl Rose gushes about the family ties that blacks have and whites don't, and that provides an identity of source whites don't have. A compliment. Oops, a generalization. Nope! The blacks immediately b-slap her back to basics, saying that they have no clue who they are since they were slaves taken against their will and brought here and given different names (funny, it was their African brothers and sisters who actually enslaved their ancestors and sold them to whites! But, since that is devastating to the black case...). Rose is chopped down and reduced to the subconscious racist she obviously is to begin with. Ridiculous! You can't claim a homogenous culture, then freak out when a generalized trait of that culture is identified!
The core problem with this show is that all the whites are expected to come to an epiphony about the black "culture," but NO blacks are expected to come to tears to understand the pain of the white culture. Bruno is right, and Black White is wrong, plain and simple.
What i ask is the pain of white culture.
I ask again what is the pain of white culture?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_mans_burden
Is this the white mans burden.
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