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May 22, 2013

John Thorne: They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman

John Rosemond: 'Disciplinary math' adds up to parental successl

Warren Richey: Are prayers before public meetings OK? Supreme Court to decide
Rick Montgomery: Use of ADHD drugs as study aid raises concern on campuses

Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D.: 6 convincing reasons you should keep carbs in your diet

Eoin O'Carroll: Scientists examine nothing, find something

The Kosher Gourmet by Carole Kotkin: This soup is made from one of the great pleasures of spring: A wonderful pairing of rosy color and earthy tang

May 20, 2013

Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?

Hannan Adely: Town raises Palestinian flag at City Hall

Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Morgan Housel: When smart investors do stupid things

Sharon Saloman, M.S., R.D.: Hunger games: Eat more, weigh less, without starving

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star

The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting

May 13, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation

David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church

Emily Alpert: Recession dragged down birth rates for less-educated women
Morgan Housel: The deep downside of home ownership

Peter Teffer: Will Dutch police soon be stalking cybercriminals on your computer?

Heidi McIndoo, M.S., R.D.: Meatless 'meat' can have its own set of problems

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Celebrate! This must-try appetizer is delicate yet has depth of flavor: Corn-Leek Cakes with Caviar, Smoked Salmon and Creme Fraiche

May 10, 2013

Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be

Caroline B. Glick: The dirty little secret about Israel's Arabs

Mona Charen: Hawking's Moral Calculus: The man and the movement he embraces
Morgan Housel: The biggest retirement myth ever told

Sandi Doughton: Eyes may provide new insight into brain problems

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : The Great Gatsby's Jewish Ties; Jews in the "Time 100 list" List; People's Most Beautiful Women

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: A sweet-hot meal: Pear salsa spices up salmon

May 8, 2013

Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas

Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate

Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
Amanda Paulson: Study reveals sad truths about community colleges

Harvard Health Letters: Evidence weak that zinc, echinacea are beneficial

The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility

May 6, 2013

Edmund Sanders and Patrick J. McDonnell: Think Israel's objective in Syria is to weaken Assad or embolden the rebels? Think again

Brian Bennett: Israeli airstrikes may show weakness in Syrian defense

Michael Ollove: Millions of ex-felons, parolees and those on probation are about to be entitled to tax-payer paid health coverage
Karen Kaplan: Most men can skip PSA test for prostate cancer, urologists say

Kimberly Lankford: How to track down a lost life insurance policy

Dream of Mars exploration achievable, experts say

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan M. Selasky: EGGPLANT WRAPS are an easy, sumptuous and scrumptious meal

May 3, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Human Courage and the Unavoidable, Disturbing Text

Steven Emerson: Attorney General Fights CAIR in Court, Lauds it in Public

Mediterranean diet helps beat dementia: study
Harvard Health Letters: When to be screened for a hearing problem

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Iron Man's Jewish Connections; Marc Maron's New TV Show; Martin Landau Grows Up with Israel; Shalom, Allan Arbus

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: A sweet surprise for Mother's Day dessert

May 1, 2013

Jonathan Rosenblum: An Improbable Journey to Orthodoxy

Jonathan Tobin: Blame Obama, Not Israel for Syria Push

Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Halena M. Gazelka, M.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: What you need to know about implanted pain relief devices

Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine

Jessica Shugart: When it comes to math, MRIs may be better than IQs

The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: The celebrated chef on how high-maintenance ASPARAGUS RISOTTO need not be

April 29, 2013

Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust

Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?

Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Morgan Housel: He's rich, smart and old: Listen to him

Thomas Salinas, D.D.S.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: The safety of amalgam fillings

Harvard Health Letters: Tomatoes and stroke protection

Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Swing into spring with lemon cream pie

April 26, 2013

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The world is a mirror

Caroline B. Glick: Time to confront Obama

Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Kimberly Lankford: New strategies ease pain of paying for long-term care insurance

Howard LeWine, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Too much ibuprofen?

Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Jewish Major Leaguers, 2013; New Movies and Comedy Show; Shalom, 'Lumpy' (Leave it to Beaver)

The Kosher Gourmet by Emily Ho : A bright and cheerful salad to herald the warmer months ahead

April 24, 2013

Steven Emerson: Boston Bomber Exposes Islamist Secret

Morgan Housel Admit it: No one has any idea what's going on
Harvard Health Letters: Can you get headaches from headache medication?

Kerri-Ann Jennings, M.S., R.D.: How to easily get more Omega-3s in your diet

Melissa Healy: Pot in a pill: All the pain relief without the smoke

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan Russo: Chipotle Chili Butternut Squash Soup is bold, zesty, hot

April 22, 2013

Ken Dilanian: Counterterrorism's future is unclear

US man departing country arrested on terror charges
Barbara Williams: An unorthodox but growing treatment in a 9-year-old's battle against cancer

P.J. Skerrett, M.D.: How to recognize a good whole grain product

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Teen actor Jonah Bobo in New Flick: Hunky James Wolk on Mad Men; Erich Segal's Daughter Writes Prize-Winning Jewish Novel


Jewish World Review March 14, 2006 / 14 Adar

Trading races as boundaries fade

By Clarence Page


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Compared to its obvious inspiration, "Black Like Me," it's easy to knock "Black. White.," the new reality-show experiment in race relations on the Fox network's FX channel — and many people do.


"Nonsense masquerading as substance," scoffs USA Today critic Robert Blanco. Maybe it is. Or maybe it's a rare injection of substance into TV's usual nonsense.


Maybe, wrapped in its unreal "reality show" grab for drama, suspense and easy laughs, it might actually help us Americans learn something about how we get along or don't get along in our ethnic stir-fry.


In a twist on Fox's "Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy," FX offers what might be called "Trading Races: Meet Your New Angst." Through the magic of modern Hollywood makeup, "Black. White." allows the black Sparks family of Atlanta, Ga., and the white Wurgel/ Marcotulli family of Santa Monica, Calif., to trade races in suburban Los Angeles.


Racial and ethnic passing are old themes in America, a land of ambitious border-crossers. Gregory Peck played a journalist who passed for Jewish in the 1947 film "Gentleman's Agreement," to expose everyday anti-Semitism. The real-life writer John Howard Griffin turned himself black with a doctor's help to tour the segregated South in 1959 for "Black Like Me."


Griffin's racial tourism offered few laughs. It was a relentlessly humiliating and ultimately death-defying experiment. Afterwards, he endured death threats for having challenged the South's racial apartheid.


Years later, Griffin's racial tourism compares to the 1986 movie "Soul Man" in much the same way that lightning is like a lightning bug. A spoof of the "Black Like Me" theme, "Soul Man" offers a white youth who passes for black to get an affirmative-action scholarship to Harvard. Although he eventually learns in typical Hollywood fashion that it's harder out here for a black dude than he thought, "Soul Man" squanders a great opportunity to get substantive for the sake of cheap laughs.


It might be easy for some to say the same about "Black. White." The participants obviously have a tougher time in this, the era of Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama, etc., to find exciting video of racial conflict. The pilot episode, the only one I have seen, reaches for stereotypes while supposedly trying to break through them. Black father Brian Sparks, for example, is steered as a "white" man to observe life in a "redneck bar" (note the lingering shot of a bald, burly and tatooed biker guy) and a golf course. White teen Rose Wurgel is steered as a "black" girl to a black poetry slam group. The show's idea of "authentic" white and black experiences obviously leans toward the bold and visual.


And one cannot help but wonder how desperately some of the participants are looking for evidence to fulfill their personal agendas. Black father Brian Sparks, for example, seems hypersensitive to racial slights at times. Even when some white people move aside to let him and artificially black Bruno Marcotulli walk by on the sidewalk, the whites are suspect in Brian's eyes. Bruno sees common courtesy in their moving aside. Brian suspects bias because he doesn't like "the way they did it."


Bruno bubbles with an irritatingly cheerful sense of liberal white-guy entitlement. A teacher, he seems overly eager to treat black people like his students, preaching the virtues of hard work, proper attitude and high tolerance for racial slurs.


In fact, Bruno, in and out of his blackface, seems to relish throwing slurs like "honky" and "nigger" around, even when they make others visibly wince.


How many episodes, one wonders, before we see a Brian vs. Bruno smackdown? Hey, suspense is good for ratings, right?


If anything rises up as rays of hope in the pilot episode, it is the families' teens. Rose bubbles with adventurous excitement at the prospect of becoming black for a while. Nick unintentionally outrages his mother by failing to object while he is "white" when a white kid uses the N-word in a conversation.


The teens, typical of a generation that can't even remember when Michael Jackson didn't have a nose job, are a lot more relaxed than their elders about the old racial rules.


In the age of white rappers like Eminem or black golfers like Tiger Woods, it's not as big of a deal as it used to be for today's teens to cross racial boundaries. Some of them are doing it every day.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

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