Black. White. introduces audiences to two families participating in a reality television show where they will live in the same house but trade places. The twist? The Caucasian Wurgels and the African-American Sparks family will switch races through the makeup design of Keith Vanderlaan and Brian Sipe.

The Wurgel family consists of Carmen Wurgel, her partner Bruno Marcotulli and Carmen’s 17-year-old daughter Rose. The Sparks family is made up of Brian and Renee Sparks and their 16-year-old son Nick. In the first of six parts the families move into a house in Los Angeles where they will reside together for a month.

Rose is transformed into an African-American girl so she can attend slam poetry workshops where teens her age write original pieces, critique and perform them. At the end of the six week class, participants are to perform for an audience at a venue called The Lounge. Self-conscious about her ability to write when words flow easily from the minds and mouths of her peers, Rose does not want anyone to think or notice there is something different about her. She thinks the poetry group would not react well if they ever found out her true identity. Unable to continue hiding the truth from her peers, Rose plans to divulge the truth about herself the next time her poetry workshop meets.

Meanwhile, Bruno is sent in full makeup to a used car dealership to determine whether or not sales people would react to him differently than they would to a Caucasian. Even though Bruno mentioned having a history of bad credit, he found that the salesperson did not treat him any differently. In reality, Bruno is a professional actor and teacher. He believes the salespeople and anyone else he encountered were responding not to skin color but to the positive vibe he was projecting.

However, Brian Sparks thinks that Bruno has never experienced real racism and cannot understand what it feels like to be African-American until he stops tying to see the world as Bruno and start observing it as a black man. He wants Bruno to pick up on some of the more subtle things Caucasians might say or do that could be viewed as racist toward an African-American. In contrast, Bruno feels Brian and Renee have a bad outlook on life and that they expect to encounter racism in every situation.

Relations are strained between Renee and Carmen following lessons from their dialect coach. A four-letter word derogatory toward women happened to be on a list of words given to them by the coach. When Carmen stares at Renee and utters the word, she recoils -- and her opinion of Carmen and Bruno changes foever. Carmen and Bruno finally learn what it's like to be judged based on skin color when they stroll through an all African-American neighborhood with Bruno in makeup and Carmen without it.

Nick Sparks has had problems with school for years. He's been held back a grade twice, and at 16 years old is still in grade 8. Nick was recently kicked out of school for possessing a knife on campus which belonged to a friend. Concerned Renee has Nick hang out with a former gang member who attempts to set him straight.

Finally, a therapist is brought in to help ease the tension between the Wurgels and the Sparks. And Brian and Bruno pretend to have car trouble while Bruno is in full makeup to see if Caucasians will stop to assist them.

The real star of this show is the makeup design. It took an entire year to perfect. Rose and Brian were the first cast members to have their skin, wigs, and teeth designed. The producers had them go into all-Caucasian and all- African-American neighborhoods and speak with everyone they met. The design team needed to get exact skin tones, as any discolorations could lead to the participants being found out. Their test worked, so makeup was created for the rest of the families.  

Black. White. is a startling look at racism in America and how two families learned first hand what the other race needs to endure. This 6-part series comes complete with study guides so that educators can screen the DVDs for their students.

(Released by FX Network; not rated by MPAA.)