A SHOW THAT ADDRESSES RACE HONESTLY--AND HUMOROUSLY

David Roth in The New Republic:

This is Ego Trip's second project on VH1. Last February's "Ego Trip Presents TV's Illest Minority Moments" was little-promoted and little-seen--but this time the group's show has received some critical attention, including a bemused profile of the Ego Trip editorial board in The New York Times. "Race-o-Rama"'s three one-hour episodes each offer an honest, unsettling, and hilarious crash course in the Ego Trip aesthetic. This is unmistakably a hip-hop aesthetic, and at home with the contradictions inherent in that. It is outrageous and serious-minded, bitterly angry and bitterly amused, crudely race-baiting and oddly inclusive, authentically street and equally steeped in college-kid hyper-irony. In short, "Race-o-Rama" represents the way that thoughtful young people (of all races) talk about race in 2005.

More here.