The rotating cast of commentators includes Aaron McGruder, creator of the "Boondocks" comic strip the rappers RZA, Jada Kiss, and MC Lyte and a pimp named Mr. It turns out that the singer Justin Timberlake, who a scant two years ago held honorary soul-brother status, has since had his ghetto pass revoked for abandoning Janet Jackson during their Super Bowl brouhaha. Bill Clinton, with his offices in Harlem, gets one, too, as does that bottle-blond rapper from Detroit, Eminem. For his work in "Scarface" and "The Godfather," arguably two of hip-hop culture's most beloved films, Al Pacino earns a ghetto pass. A ghetto pass, various talking heads explained, is validation given to nonblacks who earn respect without appearing desperate. "Dude" explored America's enduring fascination with black culture "from the handshakes to slang to the neck roll," as a voiceover that opened the show put it. "Our main goal is to be funny." The series, which began on Monday and ends tonight, consists of three one-hour shows: "Dude, Where's My Ghetto Pass?," "Blackaphobia" and tonight's "In Race We Lust." "We hope the things that we do have lessons, but we're not trying to be teachers," Mr. "Race-O-Rama" prefers subjects more befitting a barbershop than a lecture hall: for example, white artists whom black people love (Sting, Phil Collins, Hall and Oates). Those seeking the earnest depictions of the African-American struggle that are typical of Black History Month programming- the grainy sepia-toned images of slaves picking cotton, the black-and-white films of civil rights marchers being attacked by snarling dogs - would be wise to change the channel. "We talk about race all the time." The men talk about it at great length on "Ego Trip's Race-O-Rama," a new VH1 series that takes an irreverent look at race in pop culture. Mao, who is Chinese, referring to Black History Month. "Every month is February for us," said Mr.
In fact, it is one of the favorite topics of conversation for this five-man collective, which calls itself Ego Trip. Alvarez and his friends, the music writers Sacha Jenkins and Jefferson Mao Elliott Wilson, the editor in chief of XXL, the hip-hop magazine and Brent Rollins, a graphic designer, have little problem discussing the dreaded R-word. "It's the only thing in our culture that people are still uncomfortable talking about."īut Mr. "It's the new pornography," he declared one recent afternoon. Gabriel Alvarez, a hip-hop journalist of Mexican descent, has a theory about race in America.
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