BOB GARFIELD: For 70 years, Hollywood has worked and reworked the idea of racial transformation. The 1964 film Black Like Me, based on the book of the same title, depicted the true story of a journalist who dyed his skin to pass as an African-American in the segregated South. He tells his secret to a shoeshine man, who then gives him advice about acting "black." [FILM CLIP]

MAN: You got to act different. You got to talk different. You even got to think different. [END FILM CLIP]

BOB GARFIELD: Decades later, on Saturday Night Live, Eddie Murphy parodied that film with his version, "White Like Me." [FILM CLIP]

EDDIE MURPHY: Their butts are real tight when they walk. [AUDIENCE LAUGHTER] They gotta keep their butts tight. [AUDIENCE LAUGHTER] I gotta remember to keep my, my butt real tight when I walk. [AUDIENCE LAUGHTER] [END FILM CLIP]

BOB GARFIELD: Now there's a new addition to this genre, a reality show that airs in March on the FX cable channel called "Black.White." This series takes two families, one white, one black, who are made up daily to face the world as members of one another's race and then reconvene at night to share their experiences. [TV CLIP]

WHITE FATHER: I, I keep thinking there's something in the walk. You know, I was thinking kind of how would a white guy - sort of more straight - [

BLACK FATHER: Mm-hmm.

WHITE FATHER: - whereas a black would sort of like just a little - [OVERTALK]

BLACK FATHER: Just a little - [OVERTALK]

WHITE FATHER: Just a little - [OVERTALK]

BLACK FATHER: Yeah - [OVERTALK]

WHITE FATHER: - bit of roll.

BLACK FATHER: That's not really bad.

WHITE FATHER: There's just sort of a roll - [OVERTALK]

BLACK FATHER: That's not really bad. [OVERTALK] [END FILM CLIP]

BOB GARFIELD: It's equal parts intriguing and embarrassing - and also impossible to take your eyes off. Margo Jefferson is culture critic for the New York Times. She joins us now. Margo, welcome to the show.

MARGO JEFFERSON: Thank you.

BOB GARFIELD: Give me a kind of tour down Hollywood memory lane. Tell me some of the various films that have explored the whole idea of "passing."

MARGO JEFFERSON: Well, until very recently, in movies, a lot of the [LAUGHS] "passing", the stereotype, that's been melodrama. If you have a "passing" story, black woman, let's say, who is fair enough to pass for white, she's going to be played by a white actress. And they would have been categorized as "women's pictures," you know, weepers, melodramas. And I sound a little patronizing. The fact is, when I saw them as a girl, I was quite mesmerized. In the 1959 Imitation of Life, the tormented Sarah Jane who, of course, passes, that character was played by Susan Kohner, who was white. [FILM CLIP]

SUSAN KOHNER: And if he ever finds out about me [PAUSE] I'll kill myself.

WOMAN: But why?

SUSAN KOHNER: Because I'm white too. And if I have to be colored, then I want to die.

WOMAN: Sarah Jane, what are you saying?

SUSAN KOHNER: I want to have a chance in life. I don't want to have to come through back doors or feel lower than other people or apologize for my mother's color.

WOMAN: Don't say that!

SUSAN KOHNER: She can't help her color - but I can. [END FILM CLIP]

MARGO JEFFERSON: In 1949, there was Pinky, the Negro girl who could pass for white and did for a time. And, you know, there were plenty of black people who went to see -- especially Imitation of Life. They were compelled by it. But melodrama always has a moral dilemma. For a white audience, the honorable decision must be that if this young woman decides to keep trying to pass for white, she must be punished. [FILM CLIP]

SUSAN KOHNER: Couldn't we run away? I'd do anything to be with you. Anything.

MAN: That's not a bad idea. That's not a bad idea at all. Just tell me one thing.

SUSAN KOHNER: Yes?

MAN: Is it true?

SUSAN KOHNER: [LAUGHS] Is what true? [QUICK TEMPO MUSIC UP AND UNDER]

MAN: Tell me. Tell me!

SUSAN KOHNER: What difference does it make? You love me!

MAN: All the kids talking behind my back? Is it true?

SUSAN KOHNER: No!

MAN: Are you black?

SUSAN KOHNER: No! I'm as white as you!

MAN: You're lying!

SUSAN KOHNER: No, I'm not!

MAN: You're lying!

SUSAN KOHNER: I'm not! [END FILM CLIP]

MARGO JEFFERSON: Among other things, interracial marriage was still illegal in virtually every state of the union, if not in every state. And, you know, it was one of the great taboo subjects. For it to be acknowledged at all between a white man and a black woman, there's going to have to be a big class difference. The white man is going to have to be middle-class. The black woman is going to have to be a kind of tramp, the "bad woman." And in Pinky and Imitation of Life, the woman is a pretty good girl. You know, she's got a nice mother or grandmother. This cannot be allowed to happen. If she decides, like Pinky decided, to in fact, stay among her people and work for them, then she becomes the good heroine. So, yes, you're definitely saying let's keep each race in its place.

BOB GARFIELD: As we got into the '60s, a whole different sensibility began to emerge. On the one hand, there was Black Like Me, which, I guess, you could characterize as the ultimate white guilt flick.

MARGO JEFFERSON: [CHUCKLES]

BOB GARFIELD: But we also saw attempts at satire. The quintessential example would be from 1970, Watermelon Man, with Godfrey Cambridge. Tell me about that movie.

MARGO JEFFERSON: That was a shocker. And that really, in terms of atmosphere, does come straight out of that racketing '60s, where the civil rights movement went right into black nationalism. I think that may have been the first time that mass audiences saw a black man in pure white makeup, in triumphant whiteface, if you will.

BOB GARFIELD: But it didn't last long because the premise of the film is that Godfrey Cambridge, a white middle-class guy, wakes up one day like Josef K. in Franz Kafka - [OVERTALK]

MARGO JEFFERSON: Yes!

BOB GARFIELD: - but instead of turning into a cockroach, he turns into a black man. [FILM CLIP]

WOMAN: Oh, my God! Oh, my good God!

GODFREY CAMBRIDGE: Aw, shut up! There is no God. He don't give a damn.

WOMAN: You, you, you, you look like a Negro!

GODFREY CAMBRIDGE: I know what I look like! Shut up!

WOMAN: And I mean a dark one! I mean, I mean, if I didn't know you, if I -[OVERTALK]

GODFREY CAMBRIDGE: Will you shut up, Althea?

WOMAN: Oh! Oh, should I hide the money? [END FILM CLIP]

BOB GARFIELD: And his life changes dramatically. [LAUGHS]

MARGO JEFFERSON: Dramatically! But also comedically. You know, I think that one was a little too dangerous in various ways. You know, he had a white family. He had a white wife, so it's too close to a lot of bones and it's pushing black and white too close together.

BOB GARFIELD: So if we've established that all of these things somewhere press a primal hot button, is there a moment in the newest addition to the genre, the upcoming cable series "Black. White," that transcends the simple stunt of "passing," that's more than just skin-deep?

MARGO JEFFERSON: I was very taken with the black father and seeing him at the golf course, because you can see his enjoyment and his watchfulness, at the same time, because normally, with a "passer," a black person passing for white, what you're supposed to see is the seamless result. You're not supposed to also see what's going on behind the eyes or see a kind of glee. And we do. And that to me is worth it. I must say I also enjoyed - I guess it's Ice Cube's song at the beginning - the line where he said, you know, he went to jail like Martha Stewart, and, like her, he told the judge, "I didn't do it."

BOB GARFIELD: [LAUGHS]

MARGO JEFFERSON: And I thought, okay, Ice Cube and Martha. I'm fine with that [LAUGHING], you know.

BOB GARFIELD: Well, Margo, thank you very much.

MARGO JEFFERSON: It was fun.

BOB GARFIELD: Margo Jefferson is a cultural critic for the New York Times and author of the book just published on Michael Jackson. [RAP MUSIC UP AND UNDER: ICE CUBE] [BLACK.WHITE. VIDEO CLIP] BLACK FATHER ON SHOW: I needed a pair of shoes, so I had to go into the pro shop. And then the most amazing thing happened. The guy actually took my foot and put it in a shoe and put a shoehorn in the back to make sure my foot slide in -- that feels good. I have never in my life had someone - you know, they come out and give me my shoe -- but I've never had anyone actually unlace it, open it, shoehorn the back and slide my foot into the shoe. [END VIDEO CLIP] [MUSIC UP AND UNDER]

BOB GARFIELD: That's it for this week's show. On the Media was produced by Megan Ryan, Tony Field, Jamie York and Mike Vuolo, and edited - by Brooke. Dylan Keefe is our technical director and Jennifer Munson our engineer. We had engineering help this week from Rob Christiansen and other assistance from Katie Holt and Kevin Schlottmann. Our webmaster is Amy Pearl.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Katya Rogers is our senior producer and John Keefe our executive producer. Bassist/composer Ben Allison wrote our theme. You can listen to the program and find free transcripts, MP3 downloads and our podcast at onthemedia.org and e-mail us at onthemedia@wnyc.org. This is On the Media, from WNYC. I'm Brooke Gladstone.

BOB GARFIELD: And I'm Bob Garfield. (MUSIC TAG) (FUNDING CREDITS)