The problem with Survivor being divided by race is that nothing inherent in what the contestants do would be of any value to making any opinions about race. Casting will be the dealbreaker, not performance.

Trump's decision notwithstanding, his show would have actually been a better test --all things being equal on each side.

Great thoughts...I added a brief section of your post to my most recent blog post on the topic.

--RC of strangeculture.blogspot.com

Since all contestants are screened (selected) the winning team/person could be selected in (or out). This, of course, is the case anyway. The object of the show is not to have a real competition, it is to get and retain viewers.

How different is this from seperating the teams according to sex? I think this could be an interesting experiment to watch. It may open the eyes of many who carry the beleif that minororites that do well on reality shows only do so on the backs their fellow white players. Then again, minority watching may watch and find differences that hinder their own advancement. Thanks for letting me know about this new twist of the game. I will be watching this season.

How different is this from seperating the teams according to sex? I think this could be an interesting experiment to watch. It may open the eyes of many who carry the beleif that minororites who do well on reality shows only do so on the backs their fellow white players. Then again, minorities watching may watch and find differences that hinder their own advancement.

Thanks for letting me know about this new twist of the game. I will be watching this season.

Dr. Hill,

I saw you on CNN last night talking about the Survivor show. Great job! Too bad the woman from "Real World" cut you off.

This lame attempt at programming is a take off form the Mel Brooks Movie "The Producers" where the main characters deliberately tried to produce the most offensive show possible (Springtime for Hitler) to get out of a contract. Unfortunately, their show was a hit. Here, we have a reality show with falling ratings and this is their attempt to get back in the game by coming up with the most offensive concept in television. It may work, but not with me. I will not support segregation. To call this a social experiment and to attempt diversity by segregation is an insult to my intelligence. Whoever came up with this not so original idea should be fired.

CMoney I certainly understand your point of view.Having only watched a few of the "reality" genre TV shows, it became obvious to me that minority participants(particularly males) are at a disadvantage when it is the group that "votes" to expel one of their own.
Big Brother,Survivor and others of this ilk, demonstrate the methods used to justify discrimination practiced by a majority to eliminate any minority obstacle to their perception of the appropriate outcome.
Shows such as the Amazing Race where contestants control their own destinies by performance alone, seem to provide a much more level playing field for the minority participant. Perhaps that is why more minorities have been successful over fewer seasons.

Has anyone heard about an organized protest against this plan? If so, please post it.

Has anyone heard about an organized protest against this plan? If so, please post.

I've gone to cbs.com and sent an e-mail in their feedback section. Who knows how effective that is, but I'm sure somebody is taking notes.

Reality TV has long been the lowest form of "entertainment" available outside of a cat house. The entire idea is to mock, deride and have viewers see themselves as morally superior to the contestants.

It's like the old public executions dressed up slightly. No surprise that they would dip to this level of disgusting race baiting. I think if anything blacks or other minorities "performing poorly" in these shows would look good... they do not fit in well with the scum that populate such shows.

"But that, of course, would be too real for them."

Aye, there's the rub Prof Hill.

If we're looking to reality TV for lessons in reality then we are doing ourselves a profound disservice.

This is a entertainment! And, with all the attention being paid to this gimmick, it will do exactly what CBS intended it to do: entertain people and make lots of money.

Instead of blaming CBS, why not question the blacks who've agreed to be used in this way.

Indeed, don't you think we'd be better served if we were screaming racism because there were probably few, if any, blacks involved in the decision-making process that led to this survival of the races stunt?

(Incidentally, is there any more embarrassing portrayal of black people on TV than Leo Terrel playing himself?)

I noticed they didn't include Middle Eastern, East Indian or Aboriginal people. Does the show not know that there is more than 4 races or do they try to ignore that?

I don't know the backgrounds of the participants.

If they matched street smart black people to spoiled, white suburbanites and bookish Asians? Totally unfair.

I demand a Special Forces white guy for affirmative action compensation for the inferior survivability of the whites and Asians.

Lethe,

What's wrong with a cat house? I take exception to your denigration of cats.

:-)

Wendy,

Race is really nothing but a social construct. Your looks simply reflect a certain gene pool within humanity. There are white/caucasian Asians, Black but non-African Asians, Mongol and Malay Asians, etc. Africa and African blood lines have Black African, Indo-European, Malasian bloodlines. Latino or Hispanic if Mexican is largely Native American with European blood and perhaps some African, but Latino identity varies significantly from country to country. My point is that race as we use it is dead wrong. We construct barriers between people that fly in the face of science and our genetic history. Check out the human genome project. I would like to see us learn more about what we have in common as human rather than socialized stereotypes that may not even reflect the so-called racial group. What makes these persons representative of anything other than themselves? Come on CBS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ricardo's remarks are human genomically correct.

I agree with Ricardo that there is no such thing as race, but that it is a social construct. As a Black "Latina" I do not believe in the Hispanic/Latino race at all. It's non-extent as far as I'm concerned. And I see that the show is playing up steretypical representations of race. And as far as Latinos being predominately White and Indian, I'm not so sure that's true. According to the World Bank Whites make up the majority of the 540 million people in Latin America. And African Descendants (incorrectly used) make up 1/3 of Latin America, while Indians make up only 30 million. Of course, this leaves no room for mixed people. I don't know whether any of this is true, because race in Latin America is base on perception, among other things. Although, African descendants in my opinion make up more than a third of Latin America. People who are physically Black make a 1/3 of the population.

I cannot believe this was allowed to go on T.V. First of all, you know they will pick sterotypes of different ethic groups. This will only feed racial sterotypes ignorant people have of others. I recently found the group photo and noticed that all the asians and whites picked for the season are fit. While several of the Latinos and Blacks are not. Since many of the challenges in the show are physical. One can only guess who'll lose first. I firmly believe that everyone should boycott the show and its sponsors. The show may still go on for the season but the sponsors can and will pull out.

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