'BLACK. WHITE.' A CRASH COURSE IN RACE RELATIONS.

Byline: David Kronke Television Critic

JOHN HOWARD Griffin's disquieting 1961 best seller ``Black Like Me'' documented his attempts to understand the racial divide in the deep South by disguising himself as a black man. A couple of decades later, Eddie Murphy parodied the concept on ``Saturday Night Live,'' where, dressing up as a white man, he was treated to free newspapers and other amenities from those also in the Caucasian inner circle.

Landing somewhere in the middle of those disparate efforts is ``Black. White.,'' a provocative new FX reality series from Oscar-nominated documentarian R.J. Cutler (then again, he also did that awful reality show with Roseanne) and Ice Cube. Here, two families - one white, one black - move into a Tarzana home together and switch racial identities.

The Sparkses, a black family from Georgia, enter the project confident of what they'll discover - whites demonstrating everything from malignant neglect to unrestrained hostility toward blacks, but generally in subtle, encoded ways that allow them to wriggle away from charges of racism. The Wurgels, a white Santa Monica family, sign on with declarations of open-mindedness; nonetheless, they have some embedded preconceptions of their own.

Only Rose, the Wurgels' teenage daughter, seems truly interested in investing the energy necessary to genuinely achieve an understanding of race in America, and her insights on the idea of inclusiveness evolve into something profound. Of the others, Brian and Renee Sparks seem a little too ready to take umbrage - Brian is offended when white women won't make eye contact with him when walking down the street; hey, Brian, welcome to the club. (Their son, Nick, initially seems thoroughly disinterested in the project.)

By contrast, Bruno Marcotulli and his high-strung wife, Carmen Wurgel, shrug off their frequent tone-deaf miscues, which they believe the Sparkses blow out of proportion. Rose finds herself mediating disagreements between the families.

As much as ``Black. White.'' concerns race, it's also about individuals and their baggage. The Sparkses' expectations come from a lifetime of such insidiously tiny indignities (both hear whites vilify blacks to their face - Renee does even when she's not wearing her whiteface). Conversely, Bruno's insistence that all is right with the world - or would be, if people would just pull themselves up by their bootstraps and let bygones be bygones - comes from his meat-and-potatoes background. Carmen's well-intentioned attempts at reaching out often fail disastrously as she's caught between her visceral emotions and political correctness.

Casting the series with different families, of course, could have produced far different perspectives on race, but what is presented here is tricky, messy, subtle and cagey, and far more potent and insightful than a certain recent Oscar-winning movie that purported to explore race relations.

Over the course of four episodes made available for review (of six produced), a number of surprises emerge. One character who seems to be fairly sane reveals a shocking utter cluelessness, while one who seems sort of hopeless makes some serious inroads into understanding the racial divide. ``Black. White.'' should provoke a lot of discussion among both races, and not just blandly polite banter, but something both charged and heartfelt. Racism has been obscured somewhat in America by the mask of political correctness, and this series seeks more honest discourse on the subject.

David Kronke,[phone]

david.kronke(at)dailynews.com

BLACK. WHITE. - Three and one half stars

What: Two families exchange racial identities and opinions in this reality series.

Where: FX.

When: 10 tonight.

In a nutshell: More nuanced and insightful than a certain Oscar-winning movie about L.A. race relations.