Wednesday, August 23, 2006

"Survivor" of the Races

The new season of "Survivor: Cook Islands" premiers on Thursday, September 14 on CBS. The group is going to be split into four tribes, with a very interesting twist: the tribes are going to be divided by race! Yes, on Friday morning, September 15, I'm sure the water coolers around the country are going to be a buzz with talk about the newest installation of "Survivor."

There will be a tribe of African-Americans, Whites, Latinos, and Asian-Americans. Does this sound like a good idea to you? Are you offended? Will you watch it?

plez sez: My wife is the Queen of Reality TV, we probably record upwards of 10 hours a week in reality television programming: "Amazing Race", "Big Brother", "I Wanna Be A Soap Star", "Run's House", "Making the Band 3", "Wife Swap", "Supernanny", "Dancing with the Stars", "Project Runway", "Hell's Kitchen", "America's Next Top Model", ad nauseum! She is a little skeptical about the how the tribe members were picked for the show to ensure each racial group has a good swimmer, someone who can function outside, and someone who has ever had to build a fire.

I'm skeptical about the "producers" picking teams that highlight certain racial stereotypes - negative and positive. I'm also worrying what "Survivor" will do in subsequent seasons, pair up KKK and Black Panther tribes, Palestinians and Israeli tribes, Canadians and Americans, Red State and Blue State tribes ... where will it end?!?

To be honest, I'm not offended, actually, it may be a lot of fun! People tend to enjoy socializing with their kind anyway, it may be interesting to see how the teams fare in competition. I wonder if there are any macaque monkeys on Cook Island?

4 comments:

Christopher King said...

FWIW I like the sports-minded reality shows. One the other day had these folks jumping off a 40 foot ledge... I've done that, and it is scary as hell. In reality.

You know my film maker knows people who almost got to be on 2 different "reality" shows... by the time you are selected you may be a real person, but you are the exact person they want.

See, the reality Internet I bring you on Justiceforkids.net and KingCast.net; don't nobody care about THAT 'cos it ain't enough bling, ain't enough b*tches and ain't enough money or exotic islands or sponsors =^.)

Peace, Plez. Next time I go traveling I'll have to meet you and the Missus.

Anonymous said...

What about people of other races? are they not allowed to apply? What about an Aboriginal Team, a Middle Eastern Team, a East Indian Team or a Bi Racial Team?

plez... said...

Wendy said: What about people of other races? are they not allowed to apply?

plez sez: I would imagine they would accept teams of other races, if they could muster the numbers to fill out a tribe. But then again, you have to look at the demographics of America, the numbers drop off dramatically after you have the four groups represented. But this ain't my show... you may want to send an e-mail to CBS and Mark Burton.

Anonymous said...

Middle Eastern is Caucasian. One of the Caucasian team girls is named Pervati. She might be Persian or half Persian.

East Indian should be Asian. Every East Indian person I've ever known has identified themselves as Asian.
When I first heard about Survivor having race based teams I knew they would exclude East Indians from the Asian team, dark Indian or Mulatto Latinos from the Hispanic team. The white team appears to be fairly balanced between different Caucasian types, I was worried they would be all blonde nordic types.

The Hispanic team is all white looking Hispanics. They should merge with the "Caucasians".