OK, so why was that asinine video so easy to ignore but a bunch of overprivileged, acne-spattered adolescent boys jibbering the n-word wasn’t? It was the same behavior manifested in different ways based on generation more than level of idiocy. Shock value and boundary-testing are at the root of both behaviors. Why did Nick get blasted for a more juvenile version of the same behavior his parents exhbited? Yes, the n-word is more obviously offensive, but Bruno’s provocation was unrepentantly deliberate; he spent a lot of time on it, was more articulate about it, then went out of his way to display it for everyone. The white guys were just spontaneously being asses and at least seemed abashed/scared when confronted.
Do you think Renee would be less insulted if a black woman had called her a bitch? I don’t know. I think it would depend on if she liked her or not.
Renee is bitchy, but she’s far more vocal and aggressive about her problems with Carmen than she ever is with Bruno. In this case, though, Bruno might have the right idea. People like Renee enjoy overreacting and being self-righteous when they know they can make the other person cry or feel bad over and over. Bruno would just be like, “whatever, get over it,” and no more mileage would be gotten by Renee. This seems to be a gender thing more than a race thing, girl drama if you will.
Unlike Bruno, there’s still hope for the boys. Bruno sooooo obviously put that stupid video together for shock value: he’s been looking for a racial confrontation since this show started, so he can (he claims) defuse it with dignity, politeness and a good attitude. Make me wonder why he hauled ass in the park around the drummers (“They hated us! It was thick! Couldn’t you feel it?”) seemed like a perfectly good place to test his theory…
Anyway, the best way to handle something like his video video is to laugh it off, even if you’re secretly seething. It’s much less easy to successfully laugh off stuff like flagrant racial discrimination, racial hatred and widespread bigotry, especially on a day to day basis.
I suspect so, yeah. Note that Renee’s initial reaction was to think about getting mad… then she got mad. I also think it’s MUCH more likely she’d have forgiven Carmen by now if Carmen were black.
Good observation, makes sense and I can absolutely believe it.
Episode 5 came and went, and I didn’t see it. Did anyone here catch it?
I understand Rose (from Googling) developed a crush on somebody in her poetry class, and Brian strikes out again trying to show Bruno, while he’s in black makeup, examples of overt racism.
I also found out this show has been hemorrhaging viewers since its debut. Think there will be a season 2? Should there be a season two?
I saw it. Not a whole happened. Brian and Bruno (in Black make-up) tried to get White people to help them jump their car in a parking lot. They didn’t have any problems. Carmen made a White friend.
I’d like to see them do it again, but pick some better people.
Gotta say I agree with all of this. Calling only the overtly hateful stuff racism while using euphemisms to describe more subdued stuff strikes me as employing language in a needlessly convoluted fashion. “Racism” shouldn’t be used to elicit a sting or any other kind of emotional response. It should be used to convey meaning, just like any word.
I haven’t seen the show in question, so I can’t say whether the people are being racist or not. But they sound interesting, to say the least. I want to check out the show just to see how convincing the makeup is.
Surprised this hasn’t been bumped. Has viewership of this series dropped off so dramatically that even the SDMB posters stopped watching by the finale?
Overall, lackluster. The phrase “you can’t shine a turd” comes to mind. The entire hour and two minutes (and what’s up with that anyway?) was basically a farewell episode without any characters worth caring about.
I can’t believe Renee is still pissed off about the “bitch” comment. Four weeks later (and from what I’ve heard, long after this series ended) she still can’t get over it.
Neither the black family nor the white family, overall, wanted to learn anything. Bruno and Carmen wanted to pretend that racism didn’t exist or that if you just hold your head up high enough you can overcome any problem. Swell…except racism isn’t just insults hurled on a street corner. It’s also in the job you don’t get or the service you don’t receive.
The black family didn’t want to learn anything either. It was much more convenient for them to say “see? see? Racism!!!” than to try to delve into whether it really was or not. In this last episode, Brian and Renee were at a restaurant and asked why the woman left her wallet out while she went to the bathroom. They made the assumption that if they were black, she wouldn’t have done that. You know what? Maybe. Maybe she wouldn’t have. I’m inclined to agree. But at the end of the day, all you have are your assumptions and no real proof. Nor did she do anything “wrong” other than being willfully naive.
In the end, the entire series was lackluster, and for that I blame the producers. I blame them for the people they chose as the black and white families. I blame them for the convenient editing which eliminated crucial facts or the full story. I blame them for wasting this opportunity by giving these people absolutely nothing to do. There didn’t seem to really be a goal or a cohesive plan as to what each family should do or be or test on a day-to-day basis and everyone seemed to flounder from that.
So overall: meh. I learned very little. Which is very little more than most of the people on the series learned themselves.
I just watched the last two episodes, I read over the last few responses, and I wanted to add my final thoughts to this thread.
I can see what you’re saying to an extent. But one of the reasons I prefer other terminology is that using different terms allows you explore the exact same issues without the emotional baggage of connotative meaning.
I see “racial bias” as the most basic feeling and belief, and increasing with potential severity with > ethnocentrism > prejudice > bigotry > racism > xenophobia > ethnic cleansing being escalating forms of this kind of racial distinction. I think many forms of ethnocentrism are actually quite positive, be it pro-Latino, pro-black, pro-gay or pro-European or whatever.
I try to be precise when certain definitions call for precision and I try to be all-encompassing when certain words or ideas need broad descriptive meaning. Racism is terribly devalued and I try to adhere to a narrower definition of the term and use other words to describe other racial biases, to remind people of their meanings. Racism is almost never an unconscious, mild or innocuous belief system… but you’ve described prejudices perfectly. Use the right word! Frankly some words have connotative meanings that cannot be avoided.
Anyway…
Episode Five was interesting for several reasons. Brian trying to get Bruno to see examples of overt racism in Simi Valley by pretending to be black men need a jump for their car battery stalled midday in a mall parking lot, while they were dressed in Polo shirts and slacks and basically acting low-key in an upper middle class neighborhood… I’m like, of course you won’t see anything overtly racist in THAT situation. I’d be hard-pressed to find something overtly racially prejudicial in that situation. Later, Brian and Bruno go to some apartment where a bunch of typical working class black folks were sitting around playing dominos, drinking and smoking. It felt like I was back in college! Bruno was clearly uncomfortable and ended up making some pretty classist statements about “there being all kinds of black people” and how “these weren’t the kind of black people I’m interested in hanging around” blamed his discomfort on being around people who drank and smoke. I was like, “Uh… weren’t you in a country and western bar two episodes ago?” (I was pretty annoyed the editors didn’t do a quick segue) I thought it neatly underlined Bruno’s classist prejudices: Bruno doesn’t mind black people as long as they don’t act “black”, sound “black,” get “loud” or have “angry faces.” He’s fine with black people as long as their behavior doesn’t threaten him. He seems to have a very thick wall of prejudices and bigotries about him. Brian sees this as racism, and its not. It’s this lack of understanding about the subtleties of racial bias that ends up having Brian strike out when he’s trying to point racism everywhere. You’re just not going to see racism everywhere. You will see subtler behaviors like bigotry and prejudice. But I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard those words come out Brian’s mouth.
At any rate, seeing a softer side of Renee for a change was nice, and I wanted to know more about her friend, who does come off heaps more grounded than poor browbeaten Carmen, who still seems kind of oblivious at how condescending she is at times.
Rose’s “crush” seemed to be a whole lot of nothing major. I think hearing some infomration about the home lifes of her poetry group, and some of the destructive behaviors of generational poverty some of them were still struggling with, opned her eyes a bit.
Enderw24, a big problem I have with this entire series is the presumption that racism exists so blatantly nowadays that its the only important standard to look for when it comes to racial bias. It still exists, but so rarely its no wonder people have trouble recognizing it. Of course Bruno thinks he’s right when he’s accused of being a racist. He’s NOT a racist. But he is a bigot and has some major class issues with blacks, and he would have been better served confronting and possibly deconstructing those beliefs of his. So would Carmen. And Brian and Renee needed to get off their high horses, because I’m not seeing any major strokes from them. Brian is a black man in white America. Unless he had some schemes nixed by the production company, he should know the places to go and the easy ways it takes to provoke a racial reaction in authority figures.