** OFFICIAL Survivor: Cook Islands Thread ** ‘Survivor’s’ new racial divide

[chyam]

In this thread no one has yet to explain how this segregation is different than the past ones of sex and age. Just because it is race/ethnicity makes it bad? As some of the artilces mention one reason this is being done is because during casting they saw a certain ethnic pride being exhibited. I also argue that this segregation is still no different then what goes on in everyday society where the minorities segregate themselves away from the majority in official capacities such as the black student unions on college campuses.

Exactly! The races seem to segregate themselves in everyday life anyways.....I see it everyday at work, although we all get along it just seems that each of the races stay amongst themselves no matter how much the government and society says we need to be one great big happy family.I think everyone is all in an uproar over nothing and as I said before, in this show you have to be smart, strong and able to get along, it is your peers on your team that vote you off, not the audiance so there will be no biases from one race or another trying to get the other race to lose, if we are all equal then it will play out in this game, it looks as though they have chosen a good cross section on each team, street smarts, school smarts and athleteism, I love Survivor and I think this will be one of the better seasons.

 

[momof2inPA]

I hope they don't pick a bunch of dumb white people for the sake of political correctness.

What's with all the Californians, though? That's not diversity, and they're not a particularly interesting group of people-- no more than people from other parts of the U.S.

 

[Disney1fan2002]

My sister called me tonight, to ask me if i had heard about this. She went on to mention what an uproar it is causing.

Frankly, I have not heard any of the conversation about this, except for here. So I do npt know "big" of an uproar it is.

But my 1st thought is this, why is there such an uproar during the season where we see the MOST minorities on Survivor? Where was the uproar, when season after season, we would get our token black male and female, and an occasional Asian or Hispanic (never on the same season)?

I think people should be celebrating the fact that SOMEONE finally figured out that there are some minorities (maybe as much as the whites) that would like to be a part of Reality TV.

It is not just Survivor I am talking about. How about next summer, fill the BB house with 5 African Americans, 5 Asians, 5 Hispanic, and just TWO white people.

I am kind of hoping the white tribe gets picked off one by one at the very beginning of the game. I would like to see that.

 

[bicker]

Great point. I think this idea has clearly turned out to be a great one: A lot of PR for the show, which will end up embarrasing all of these prominent politicians who blathered on about how inappropriate it was without even seeing how it worked out. The folks who made a bit deal about this should be ashamed of themselves for falling into the worst trap of racism: Assuming that anytime they don't have control over something that is racial in nature, it simply must be a bad thing.

 

[gometros]

African American is the name we chose for our RACE after being given stupid names like Negroid, Negro or colored by others who authorized themselves to name us. It represents our culture AND our race.

What does that say for blacks living in Europe? Can't exactly call them African-American. I would agree that the afore-mentioned labels were degrading, but African American is exclusionary

 

[my4kids]

What is diversity though? I mean do we need 40% minority winners to make it diverse enough? African Americans are 12% of the US and have won 9% of the Survivors (minus all-star). Hispanics are 14% and again have won 9% of Survivors. Seems like the winners pretty accurately reflect the US make-up especially since the sample size of winners is pretty small.

i agree, also, Ethan was Jewish which was not noted in the list. Believe me, they go to great pains to pick people based on the % of each group in the US. They are trying to reflect the US population.

 

[my4kids]

It will be interesting to see which teams do the best in the swimming/water challenges, the mental/puzzle challenges, and the hard labor challenges.

Now obviously I said all these because these are common stereotypes about races (although I have to admit, as a white person, I don't know what the stereotypes about whites are if there are any??) It will be interesting to see whether the stereotypes will be true for the teams or not.

Cough-dancing competition-cough

 

[cardaway]

The folks who made a bit deal about this should be ashamed of themselves for falling into the worst trap of racism: Assuming that anytime they don't have control over something that is racial in nature, it simply must be a bad thing.

Ashamed? Because we don't have control? Insulting...

 

[Uncle Remus]

 

[bicker]

Well you know I wasn't talking about you, cardaway. It's just those other folks, like that yahoo from NYC.

 

[gris gris]

I don't think it's a big deal and I'll be watching, as I have every other season.

I totally agree. If anything maybe it will give the non-whites a chance. It seems like every year the black person is one of the first to go. Strength in numbers maybe?

 

[emmoms]

Is this the official Survivor: Cook Islands thread?

 

[bicker]

Is this the official Survivor: Cook Islands thread?

Since there isn't another one, I might as well make this one the one...

 

[emmoms]

Thanks! I'm waiting (impatiently) for this new season to begin!

 

[bicker]

One of the things I don't like about seasons that start with 20 people is that that is too many people to get familiar with before the season starts, and even beyond that, even during the first few episodes there are just too many people to remember who's who at that point. With 16 people, I think that's more practical.

 

[cats mom]

Short of the deliberate casting that I think goes on, I believe this is different because with both age and sex you have a natural element of disadvantage in physical ability. We know from watching every season that the first few challenges are always very physical in nature.

Is somebody going to go on the record in saying they think one of these minority groups will have a better or worse shot in the physical challenges based on being separated by race?

That IMO is the difference.

Nope, because I don't think they will. But I agree that there was a definite advantage/disadvantage when they divided the tribes into older/younger men/women. Was there an outcry about that?

i agree, also, Ethan was Jewish which was not noted in the list. Believe me, they go to great pains to pick people based on the % of each group in the US. They are trying to reflect the US population.

Which is why I'm not so sure how genuine this bit is:
"the idea arose because the producers noticed that the applicants had so much "ethnic pride," so it decided to divide them on that basis."
Of course the applicants had a lot of ethnic pride. They were looking to fill a particular slot in the casting, based on prior seasons.

I hope they don't pick a bunch of dumb white people for the sake of political correctness.

What's with all the Californians, though? That's not diversity, and they're not a particularly interesting group of people-- no more than people from other parts of the U.S.

To be honest I have not looked at the contestant profiles for this season yet, so I may be way off base, but I know one thing that bothers me about most reality shows is how many contestants try to get on just to further acting careers. Not sure if it's the case this time, but might help explain why they get so many applicants from CA.

I'll be watching, not so much to see how this all plays out, but because I'm one of the folks who still likes Survivor.

 

[cardaway]

Nope, because I don't think they will. But I agree that there was a definite advantage/disadvantage when they divided the tribes into older/younger men/women. Was there an outcry about that?

I think there would have been some talk, but it was clear they picked the strongest older folks they could because they knew they were going to be doing that tribe split. The older folks on that season were much stronger than most of the older folks picked on other seasons. I suspect we'll see much stronger minority players than previous seasons because of this race stunt.

To be honest I have not looked at the contestant profiles for this season yet, so I may be way off base, but I know one thing that bothers me about most reality shows is how many contestants try to get on just to further acting careers. Not sure if it's the case this time, but might help explain why they get so many applicants from CA.

I also think a lot of it is because actors can easily take time off to be a castaway, houseguest, or race contestant. Same with waiters/bartenders, salespeople, and the self employed.

 

[MrsKreamer]

Huh? Why is that? Do you feel there were too many white people on the previous shows?

No. I just thought it was interesting that's all.

 

[gris gris]

2 days to go! On the radio this AM they said there was an interview with Jeff and he said there will be 3 instances of love interests and one will be the strangest we've ever seen on reality TV.

 

[Mom2Ashli]

Oh I can't wait for it to start. It should be interesting to say the least.