Guess Who's Coming Over?

TLC (aka The Learning Channel) presented the first in a series this evening, titled "Guess Who's Coming Over?" The first program was about a middle class Black man from Harlem in NYC visiting a redneck man from Georgia in an attempt to break through the Georgia man's ignorance regarding Black people. The gentleman from Harlem, Chuck, was invited to stay with the Georgia family by the grown daughter of the White man, David. She has a toddler and is reasonably concerned that growing up around grandpa spouting racial epitaphs and ignorant stereotypes is a very bad idea. It says something about her family that she was evolved enough to recognise the rampant racism in her father, and it's negative effect on her child. No matter, the woman deserves a lot of credit for attempting such a radical alteration of her father's views.

With such an obvious reality-show premise ("two people from wildly divergent lives get thrown together and you get to watch the unpredictable result!"), the opportunity for real dreck hung over this show like the proverbial sword of Damocles, but to TLC's credit, the relationship between the two men was depicted in an honest manner. Chuck deserves MASSIVE credit for his compassionate patience in the face of such abundance ignormation, but perhaps part of his success was the truly compassionate, fearless person at the core of David, too. A brilliant reminder that we are each far, far more than what we may intially appear, and that ultimately we are all so-very connected.

I look forward to the next installment, and highly recommend it to you; Sunday, 9/10pm on TLC (The Learning Channel)