Never having been a fan of the reality TV that has blighted our screens in recent years, I was still intrigued to read about a show that premiered in America last year, whereby two families – one black and the other white – switched race (with the considerable help of make-up, wigs and prosthetics, of course). The premise of this series was to see how either race experienced life in the other’s skin, so to speak.
At first glance, it seemed rather dubious and certainly struck me as the kind of drivel that one can expect from reality TV. However, the more I considered the gimmick, the more the fanciful part of me wondered whether human beings could indeed react differently and treat ‘others’ as they would prefer to be treated themselves if only they could identify with the others’ circumstances. Would it be enough to transform their preconceived ideas about the other race, perhaps?
I am not so sure about that, as I am of the opinion that individual prejudices, and the subtle forms of racism they fuel, are largely based on stereotypes and urban myths that may not necessarily be obliterated by education or experience.
‘What subtler forms of racism?’ you may ask. Well, there have been numerous occasions when I have wished I knew why some people reacted the way they did when they came across a black person. Take the classic situation on the bus, where it becomes so obvious that the empty seat next to you is being avoided and remains vacant when there are several standing passengers a few feet away.
Which takes me back to the US reality show. Some of the most interesting observations to come from this programme were from the white-cum-black family, particularly when they encountered prejudice in their otherwise regular and familiar haunts, where previously they would have been totally oblivious to how darker-skinned people were treated.
Interesting also was the strengthening of the black-turned-white family’s perceptions of how unfairly treated they felt as black people and the realisation that some of the perceived slights were not as straight-forward as they had thought, and had nothing to do with race.
Generally, critics were not impressed and the show (which as far I know has not yet been exported to this side of the Atlantic) and it was largely dismissed as lacking in substance. Having watched a couple of the six episodes, I would partly agree. However, as I mentioned at the start, the realisation that there are people out there who would be prejudicial and bigoted towards others primarily because of the colour of their skin does leave me perturbed enough to wonder whether such miscreants should be transformed into those very same people that they despise and find out for themselves the hurt they cause.
Anyway, for a less contrived and certainly more perceptive look at ‘race switching’, a book worth reading is Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin, a white American author who in 1959 transformed himself into a black man for six weeks and kept an autobiographical diary (later made into a film) as he traversed America’s Deep South, then a hotbed of intense racism.
The result is an interesting and at times truly depressing true story of racism and the dignity that the oppressed blacks still managed to maintain during that era. Even though the book is almost 50 years old now, most of what it reveals is still relevant today – the main difference being that the forms of racism and their perpetrators have only become more subtle and sophisticated.
Itayi Viriri is a Zimbabwean-born journalist living in Ireland
