white face

So unfortunately, Youtube has blocked the show that I originally wanted to show which is called Black. White. But you can watch it on Amazon or iTunes if you are interested in watching it. But I did find a clip to what appears to be a similar show in France in which a black family is put into white face. What I found to resonate between all three readings this week was this idea that whites needed black face in order to define who they were. The white identity formation in America based on these three readings suggests that whiteness is not "what I am" but rather "what I am not."

So I thought that the show Black. White. was so relevant to this discussion because it suggests that this "What I am not" identity formation for whites still exists today. If you have a chance to watch the show, you'll find that when the black family goes into white face, they still continue to act in their typical manner. However, when the white family goes into black face, you'll see that the mother and father character have a hard time resisting this need to "act black." Interestingly enough, the daughter of the white family, resists this urge and continues to act in the ways that she would when she was white and this might be representative of a generational difference. Even though the white mother and father identify with being progressive, colorblind liberals, their need to "authenticate" their black experience by wearing a dashiki or desiring to use the N word demonstrates that to them this is the only way to be black and if they were to act as themselves they would be "white."

Here is also a break down of what happens in the season in case no one wants to pay to watch the show.