Black. White. And stupid.

Black.White.--the show that takes two families, one white, one black, and swaps their skin color to see what happens--premiered last night on FX. And while shows like this present the possibility of challenging our ideas about controversial topics and subsequently expanding our understandings of the complexity of social issues such as race, Black. White. is very unlikely to add significantly to any understandings of anything. With personalities like Bruno, the show is bound to be disastrous: Bruno and his family (partner Carmen Wurgel and her 18-year-old daughter, Rose) are the white family . . . Bruno is creepy on several levels. You could chalk up the fact that he is plainly turned on at first seeing Carmen in her makeup to universal perversities about sex and color . . . . And when he says, "I'm kind of waiting for somebody to say, 'Hey, nigger!' " he does so in a tone that others might use to say, "I can't wait to see V for Vendetta." Clearly we can't hold fast to this show broadening anything other than ignorance. We'll just have cling to the comedic and sociological brilliance of Dave Chappelle.