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Tavis: Ice Cube and veteran producer R.J. Cutler are two of the creative forces behind the new reality series "Black. White." The six-part series follows the race-swapping experiment of two families, one White, and of course, the other Black. The first episode premieres March eighth on FX. Here now, a scene from "Black. White."

Tavis: Cube, nice to see you, man.

Ice Cube: You too, man.

Tavis: R.J. Cutler, nice to meet you.

R.J. Cutler: Thanks, you too.

Tavis: Before we jump into "Black. White.," let me say to you, this is the first time we've actually met. Your piece, 'The War Room,' is, like, one of the best documentaries of all time. I enjoyed that immensely.

Cutler: Thank you. Yeah, I really had a great time making that film.

Tavis: Yeah, I enjoyed it. "Black. White." Cube, what's the reason behind this? Why do this project?

Cube: Oh, people gotta understand, and the reason I got involved, not only was it a great idea to do the show, but we had a chance to pull back the layers. People think racism is extreme. The Klan man on this side; the Black Power sign on that side. But it's so many layers within each of us that this show has the opportunity to just kind of pull back those layers, and it's just, to me, a brilliant idea. And a nice show. I like it.

Tavis: Do you think people - to your point, race is extremely layered. I think that race, personally, racism, certainly, is probably the most intractable issue in our society, and the most difficult issue to navigate. And in part because it is complex, to your point, Cube. There's so many layers. I wonder whether or not, with all those layers, you think that people can really get what racism can do by just putting on makeup. By just playing roles here.

Cube: Of course not. You can't really get the true taste unless you really, really can't rub the makeup off. (laugh) But you can get a sample. You can get a feeling. You can hopefully get a better understanding how the next person lives. I think the Black family, I think they did learn a lot about being White, other than what they thought they knew.

And I think the White family learned a little bit about being Black, no matter what they came into the house thinking. So it was definitely a learning experience, and I think the families grew from it, and each individual grew from the experience. And you can't really experience how another culture lives by just putting on makeup. But you can get a little taste.

Tavis: Before I go to R.J. here, you said something a moment ago that really has now piqued my interest, Cube, and that is that you think that the White family learned stuff about being Black, and the Black family learned about being White. I know there's somebody Black watching right now, 'cause I thought this when you said that.

What in the world could I learn about being White? I live that experience every day. We live in a White man's nation, the White man runs everything, the White man owns everything. How are you going to tell me something about what it means to be White? I see that experience every day.

Now, you can learn what it means to be Black. But I have to fit myself into your culture, into your world, into your ethos every day. How am I going to learn something about being White?

Cube: Well, I think it's really a question for the Sparks. (laugh) I think looking at the show, you can see that they come in, in some ways they think White people got it so much more easier. That you can just walk in the store and get free things and stuff like that. (laugh)

Tavis: That's not how that works? (laugh)

Cube: No. (laugh) That's a little extreme. But like I said, you can't really get the full, full contact experience just by makeup, but you can get a taste, and I think they got a taste, and I think America's going to get a taste.

Tavis: R.J., one of the things about reality shows I personally don't like, I'm not putting this one in that category, but I find that reality shows entertain us, and that's what TV's supposed to do, I guess. It entertains us, these reality shows often do. I'm not sure they empower us. I get the sense, though, you were going for more than entertainment with this project.

Cutler: Sure. Look, we always want to tell engaging stories and make compelling films and TV shows. But with this show, we're also trying to illuminate an issue, and inspire and provoke conversation. And it's one of the things that the whole issue we're talking about now, the fact that race is not just skin deep, that there are other things involved, that there's culture, that there's history, there's personal experience, is one of the things that's going to provoke people to have conversations about this stuff.

And we see ourselves as starting a conversation with this show, in an engaging, dramatic, entertaining way. So sure, we want people to be hooked to it and to enjoy watching it, even as it stirs their emotions and teaches them things or causes them to look at themselves a little. I mean even, like, the first 30 seconds or so you just showed of the first episode, you look at that, and already you're thinking all sorts of things about what is White, what is Black.

All those things you're thinking about, you're thinking that's what, you have to realize, that's what I think about what is White and what is Black. That's what I'm bringing to it. So from the get go, we're hoping to really stimulate a conversation.

Tavis: To that point about stimulating a conversation, I wonder whether or not you think it's possible to really generate an honest, true conversation about race in this country. I referenced earlier race is perhaps the most intractable issue, certainly one of the more difficult issues. Witness the fact that we're dealing with after all these centuries.

I wonder whether or not you think that we can have a real conversation about race in this country, number one. And number two, whether or not Hollywood has a role to play in that conversation.

Cutler: Well, I think the whole culture has a role to play in the conversation. I hope that we can, because we need to. Race is something we need to be talking about. And it is the, as you say, it's central to our history. It's central to who we are now, and it's central to who we're going to be in the future. And if you care about America and where we're going, you have to care about race.

And you have to think about it, and people need to talk about it honestly and openly. I think we live in a culture right now that tends to sweep racial issues under the carpet and ignore them and say, yeah, everything's fine now. It's one big harmonious society. Well, it isn't. It isn't. There are big differences, and you see the big differences.

And you see, in this show, two families that kind of, they can't escape race because of the construct of the show. But that leads them to pretty interesting, fascinating, honest, open, vulnerable conversations about what race is. And by the way, it isn't easy for them. This show, these two families had to really kind of hit their own limits a lot, and face up to their own limitations.

Tavis: You know the families, before I go back to Cube here, you know the families that you chose, obviously, to do this project. To your point now, why, if I'm a family, would I want to put myself through a process about an issue that is as vexing as this? This ain't going on "American Idol," winning some money for singing.

This ain't "Dancing With The Stars." This ain't whatever else is out there these days. This is a real, challenging, vexing conversation that I have to be emotionally prepared to delve into. I guess, what am I trying to say? This ain't altogether fun, R.J. Why would I do this if I'm a family?

Cutler: Well, everybody always has to answer those questions for themselves, and I can't really speak on behalf of the Sparks and the Wurgels, and that people bring different things. I know Brian Sparks has talked about his own personal history as a boy growing up, and having a lot of conflict. He was a light-skinned Black man, and he got into a lot of fights with darker skin Black kids, and White kids.

And he brought a certain history to this own experience. But we all bring something to it. It's a very personal thing why somebody would get into a show like this, or even allow cameras to film them under any circumstances, even in a film like "The War Room" that you mentioned before. But I do know that these families felt the importance of what they were doing, and did stick to it. And they lay it all out on the line, even when they don't look as nice as they wish they did.

Tavis: Cube, I don't know if I'm right or wrong about this, but let me try it out on you. I'm curious what your take is on this. It used to be this country was a very simple construct. Black, White. That's the story of slavery, the story of segregation. We know that story. We know that construct, Black, White. The paradigm has shifted, and we now live in the most multicultural, multiracial, multiethnic America ever.

If there is any hope, as I see it, at least, that we're ever gonna make any progress on this race question, it's going to happen because the kids in this generation have grown up not in that Black-White construct, but in the most multicultural, multiracial, multiethnic America ever. Since you talk to these kids every day through your music and through your work, what's your sense of whether or not that's even doable, or whether or not I'm smoking crack, or something?

Cube: Well, I don't think any kid grows up wanting to deal with race and wanting to confront it or have it confront them. So I think kids from generations, I guess the generation right before me, we're very hopeful, and still are hopeful that some day we can squash all these things. You could tell the kids in our show really, really didn't want to combat race, and didn't wanna kind of arm themselves for the big, bad racial world that's out there.

So, I think they really wanna get over this problem. It's just the institutional racism is the hard part. That's the part that's hard to get over, and that's the part that's hard to knock down. You can change some minds, but to change structure and to change how things are put together is more difficult. So, I think that's the biggest problem with the country, is the institutions that still perpetuate racism and thrive off of it, and thrive on us kind of being at each other.

Cutler: And one of the things that the show does critique, I think, is this notion of color blindness. That we ignore race, which is not, I don't think is a healthy thing. And certainly, the aspiration towards a society where race is not an issue, that's a virtue of color blindness or of where it seems to be going. But ignoring history, ignoring the fact that race is an issue, that's a blindness that we don't want.

Tavis: And so the struggle continues, and in the midst of that struggle premieres on March eighth on FX, "Black. White.," produced by R.J. Cutler and Ice Cube. Nice to have you both here.

Cutler: Thanks so much.

Cube: I wanna thank you for having us on, because it seemed like Oprah was scared to.

Tavis: Well, you will never find me ever afraid to address issues that I think that if we are honest in conversation about, can make Black America better. And I think we make Black America better, we make all of America better. I was just saying the other day that what the American people want is very simple. We all want to live in a nation that is as good as its promise.

Cube: Mm hmm. Yeah, that's all.

Tavis: We want a nation as good as its promise, and we can't ever achieve that if we ain't gonna have some dialogue about it, so I'm honored to have you both here.

Cube: All right.

Tavis: Thank you, Cube.

Cutler: Thank you.

Tavis: That's our show tonight. Catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International. Check your local listings. See you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from L.A. Thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith.