The Black Family
Posted October 1st, 2005 @ 10:31am by Erik J. Barzeski
The Amazing Race is, this year, a family affair. Teams of siblings or parents and offspring are competing in the 11,000-mile race. The first show aired this week, and as part of the introduction, the camera zoomed around some boats and focused on the various families. A voiceover would say "The Aiello Family, a father and his three son-in-laws" (for example) and describe them, their relationships, and 10 seconds or so of an interview.
Carey and I laughed out loud when the camera zoomed in on one of the final families, a black family, and said "The Black Family" as if they were saying "The Chinese Family" or "The Token Minority Family." Their last name was indeed "Black," but we still chuckled every time they were called the "Black Family." "Twenty minutes later, the Black family arrives." "The Black family has trouble rowing the boat." "Black family, I'm sorry to tell you that you've been eliminated from the race."
On a semi-related note, nearly everyone I've ever met with the last name "Black" is white, while nearly everyone I've ever known with the last name "White" is black. My sample size is rather small, but the Amazing Race's Black family is the first black family I've ever known of named Black.
Donate Life
Posted 01 Oct 2005 at 10:56am #
Reminds me of the one ancient SNL skit where Eddie Murphie disguises himself as Mr. White and how all of a sudden people treated him differently, etc.
Posted 01 Oct 2005 at 11:17am #
I'm white...
Posted 01 Oct 2005 at 11:40am #
How about a "if you haven't seen the first episode yet, but still plan to watch it on TiVo" warning at the beginning?
Posted 01 Oct 2005 at 11:45am #
Nah. Spoiler warnings are lame. You could have stopped reading when you saw "The Amazing Race is, this year, a family affair."
Posted 01 Oct 2005 at 2:37pm #
I thought the Black Family thing was funny too. So did Chad. 🙂
Posted 01 Oct 2005 at 5:36pm #
So funny. I spent the entire two hours cracking up about this. Oh, that and the whole "i wish we had handicapped kids to throw in front of traffic" comments.
Oh, and Carissa, who despite having instantly earned the ire of the rest of the world I think is seriously adorable. That and the Paolo family which reminds me more of my own family than I am willing to admit.
Posted 01 Oct 2005 at 8:20pm #
I'm so sad that they were the first team eliminated. The show won't be the same without them! 🙂
Posted 02 Oct 2005 at 7:35am #
I noted that as well, and like your wife, will miss them. They were one of the few families/teams I actually liked... and the one team my wife & I don't like (the New Yorkers) is still in the running.