Black & white TV

This comment underlines what Lionel calls the nuclear button of American life. "Nobody wants to talk about race because it makes them uncomfortable," he says. He concludes that the difference for blacks and whites is that blacks think about it all the time because they are constantly making adjustments to a culture that is dominated by the white experience.

But one of the interesting twists in the show is that both sides realize how much they don't know about the other. In an interview, the show's African-American dad says, "I knew racism was there, but I was shocked." He has just finished a stint bartending as a white person in an all-white neighborhood. Patrons, who assume he is one of them, discuss at length the virtues of keeping their white neighborhood "pure."

"Black.White" offers other eye-opening lessons about cultural differences.

Gwen, the grandmother on the panel, says she has experienced many of the issues that came up on the show. Take the issue of minding one's own business, she says. When the two wives trade tips for fitting in, the black mom advises her white counterpart to "ask fewer questions."

Black people, she says, do not ask questions about other people's lives and don't like such inquiries, either.

"I almost didn't want to come today," says Gwen, "because I was worried that I might get asked all sorts of questions about things that are none of anyone's business." It is interesting to realize that this is not personal so much as cultural, she says. Whites do not shy away from personal questions as blacks do.

Toward the end of the lunch, the conversation moves into a sort of Rorschach test of its own. Gwen brings up a poem written by the white teen, Rose, for an all-black teen poetry class which she joins in her black guise. Rose anguishes over how to fit into the class and comes up with a poem that ends with several graphic references to sex.

"She did that because she thinks that's what blacks relate to," says Gwen, shaking her head in disapproval over the hoary stereotype.

Lionel agrees with Gwen. "I think she did this to fit in," he says, adding, "did you see the way she walked when she came in? It was a deliberately sexy walk."

But Bonnie suggests that this is not a racist move on the 17-year-old's part, rather a reflection of her age. "She's a teenager, and that's what's on her mind."

Bonnie's husband Angel, who has been more reserved than the rest of the panel, sums up what he believes the message of the show will be. "Whites tend to underestimate racism," he says, "while blacks tend to overestimate it."

"Our first thought was, 'No way, you're crazy,' " says makeup artist Brian Sipe, when he heard about FX's "Black.White" project. "I really didn't think we could pull it off, just because of the nature of needing to make these makeups pass at the 2-ft. [distance] level." There's a big difference between making someone up for a film or the stage and doing it for personal contact, he says.

As recently as 10 years ago, Sipe says he wouldn't have even given it a shot. But advances in makeup technology have made it possible for close-ups like never before. He and his team used newly developed super lightweight, extremely sophisticated makeup known as tattoo paint, created for film-star body art such as those Vin Diesel often sports. "It sticks really well and it looks a little aged," he says, explaining that in the past few years the paint companies have expanded their palette to include skin tones. "This was incredibly important," he adds, "because if we had used traditional makeup they would have looked like they just walked off a movie set or a theater stage."

Sipe says the team spent a year and a half testing skin, hair, and eye treatments before they settled on the effects that are used in the show. The participants spent three to five hours each day getting makeup applied and another hour or two removing it at the end of the day.

The biggest challenges were adapting facial features from one race to another, such as the eyebrows on Nick, the black teen. They had to be plucked and reshaped as well as dyed a new color.

And just in case a wig slipped, each family member had a makeup truck in tow. "We were always ready to fix a makeup smear or a contact [lens]," says Sipe. "They were never on their own."

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