White Kid Brown Kid (if you ignore the awful and slightly awkward title) is a very interesting documentary on Channel 4 that I think lots of groups of people should watch. My worry is, they won’t bother.

White Kid Brown Kid follows two teenagers who live within miles of each other in a town that has been segregated by white Christian/westernised people and Asian people who have very strong religious views. The show wants to see if these two separate communities could ever come together and live within the same space rather than keeping themselves to themselves. Of course there are worries on both sides on whether their beliefs will be questioned or if the two girls are too different to even get along. What happens however is something that you kind of expect.

The two girls get along like a house on fire. They’re incredibly friendly and take into account each others ways and how they live their lives. They also help each other come out of their shell and the world they have been brought up in. It is harder for the people around them to adjust however as they are set hard in their views. While Siobhan, the ‘white girl’, is able to do what she wants and even though she’s only 16 is allowed to go to parties and alcohol  Farhana the ‘brown girl’ has a strict curfew and is only allowed out if accompanied by family members and must abide by the family’s rules and regulations on her life. It’s quite interesting to see how these two girls mesh even with the obstacles in their way and how the families around them adjust to their new friendship.

I think the most important thing that can be gained from this documentary is that although we may come from different backgrounds and believe in different things we’re not so different after all. We all just want to be happy and live in peace and get along with others. We enjoy makeup, TV shows, fashion and have our family’s best interest at heart. I think the biggest issue we have as people today and is shown a lot in the show is we are not willing to push the boundaries and break out from what we know. We’re so stuck with our own friends, family and community that we don’t understand other people well enough apart from what we see on the TV and in the media. Maybe if we just spoke to each other more and took time to really try and understand why people are the way they are we’d be able to live in a world full of a bit more peace.

What do you think of White Kid Brown Kid?

It’s still available on 4od for you to watch!

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding