| Genre: | Reality show |
| Creator: | David J. Maldonado Batista R. J. Cutler |
| Director: | R. J. Cutler |
| Starring: | Rose Bloomfield, Bruno Marcotulli, Poetri, Brian Sparks, Nicholas Sparks, Renee Sparks, Carmen Wurgel |
| Opentheme: | "Race Card" by Ice Cube |
| Composer: | Leigh Roberts |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Num Seasons: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 6 |
| Executive Producer: | Ice Cube, R. J. Cutler |
| Producer: | Autumn Humphreys, Alexandra Reed, Matt Alvarez, Keith Hoffman, Donny Jackson, Rebecca Lock, Fernando Mills, Andy Robertson, Jude Weng, Nisa Ahmad, Jason Cornwell, Sarah N. Crouthamel, Todd Lubin, Eric Mofford, Keith VanderLaan |
| Editor: | Andy Robertson, Maris Berzins, Poppy Das, Greg Finton, Yaffa Lerea |
| Cinematography: | Andrei Cranach |
| Company: | Actual Reality Pictures Cube Vision Productions FX Productions |
| Budget: | $750,000 (estimated) |
| Network: | FX |
Black. White. is an American reality television series that aired on FX. The series premiered on March 8, 2006, and supposedly documented two voluntary families of three, one white, and the other black, in which through studio-quality make-up, the two families would give off a facade appearance, of portraying a race that isn't their own, for social experiment purposes. It garnered controversy for its subject matter and perceived reinforcement of racial stereotypes.
The show was produced and created by Ice Cube and R. J. Cutler. The series' theme song was "Race Card", performed by Ice Cube and produced by Warren G. The series ran for five weeks ending with a double episode finale.
The show received mixed responses. Melanie McFarland of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer stated, "No matter what conclusion you come to after watching FX's six-episode reality series 'Black. White.' you should be grateful for the care producers RJ Cutler and David Maldonado took in executing it."[1] Matt Roush of TV Guide wrote, "Far from a cheap reality stunt, FX's provocative documentary series Black.White. is an endlessly curious and unexpectedly intelligent social experiment...."[2] Charles Page of the Chicago Tribune said, "Compared to its obvious inspiration, 'Black Like Me,' it is easy to knock 'Black.White.,' the new reality TV experiment on race relations on FX—and many people do....Maybe it is. Or maybe it's a rare injection of substance into TV's usual nonsense."[3]
The show also received criticism from major media outlets. Robert Bianco of USA Today wrote:[4]
"The show is being sold on the race-switch trick, but tonight's premiere is built around a far more mundane stunt: putting people you know won't get along into close-quarter situations designed to exacerbate the inevitable conflicts. If you think there's any chance that the two men, Brian and Bruno, weren't cast specifically to clash, or that the producers aren't playing up every conflict, you've never seen a reality show."
"Black. White. is based on two false premises, one more pernicious than the other: that you can understand someone of a different race simply by putting on makeup, and that you need that kind of understanding in order to treat people as the law and morality require."
Lee Siegel of The New Republic commented:[5]
"'Black. White.' is not a provocative study in secret prejudice, followed by growth and awakening. It's a reinforcement of the stereotypes the show claims it wants to examine and expose."
In Canada, Black. White. aired on Sun TV, an independent broadcast television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In Australia, the show was seen on Foxtel & Austar channel Fox8. It was also broadcast in Sweden on a public TV channel. A two-part French version of the show was produced and aired on Canal+ in January 2007, named Dans la peau d'un noir ("In Black Skin").
The series won an Emmy award for 'Outstanding Makeup for a Series (Non-Prosthetic)' in 2006, and was nominated for an Image Award for 'Outstanding Reality Series'[6] in 2007.