Surviving Race
posted by CS | 9:42 AM 
The televised world is reading ever more often like the Richard Bachman (Steven King) novel, The Running Man. The pawns of prophecy, the producers of pap and pablum, have devised a scheme for next season's Survivor, certain to further enhance race relations: divide the base camps along racial lines:
Then again, let's consider the possibility the contestants are unusually mature, intellingent Americans. Would it not be a good thing to see a group of blacks or latinos who rise above victimization, use their wits, and best the whites? I can't say for sure. I am so tired of race-baiting as to not expect much. I work with blacks, whites, asians, latinos, arabs, each of whom is professional as the other. I just don't see race in the office. On the street, given that I work downtown in a reasonably large city, I unfortunately am presented with stark cultural differences that often get termed "race". What I find I'm typically addressing is not race at all, but cultural preferences and choices. Because the predominant culture in my office is "relaxed professional", there's an emphasis on elements I value, intelligence, logic, equity, courtesy, and gentleness among them. On the street, I am presented with something very different - something I usually try to steer clear of, I am not afraid to say. Well, not afraid to say here, at least. ;-)
So what sort of cultural preference lines will be drawn in next season's Survivor? Will everyone be more or less professional, so that things do not devolve into mere skin color? The producers have succeeded in at least one regard: they have me writing about their show and you reading it.
The 20 "castaways" in the 13th season of US reality show Survivor will be divided according to their ethnicity.What is particularly unsettling about this is not that the show is being produced, but that viewers will predictably fall along simple racial lines, in their sympathies. I place the onus seldom with the producer and almost always with the consumer. You thought the O.J. Simpson verdict was telling of this? Get ready for the finale of Survivor next season.
The contestants will be segregated into four "tribes" of blacks, whites, Asians and Latinos when the hit CBS programme returns on 14 September.
Then again, let's consider the possibility the contestants are unusually mature, intellingent Americans. Would it not be a good thing to see a group of blacks or latinos who rise above victimization, use their wits, and best the whites? I can't say for sure. I am so tired of race-baiting as to not expect much. I work with blacks, whites, asians, latinos, arabs, each of whom is professional as the other. I just don't see race in the office. On the street, given that I work downtown in a reasonably large city, I unfortunately am presented with stark cultural differences that often get termed "race". What I find I'm typically addressing is not race at all, but cultural preferences and choices. Because the predominant culture in my office is "relaxed professional", there's an emphasis on elements I value, intelligence, logic, equity, courtesy, and gentleness among them. On the street, I am presented with something very different - something I usually try to steer clear of, I am not afraid to say. Well, not afraid to say here, at least. ;-)
So what sort of cultural preference lines will be drawn in next season's Survivor? Will everyone be more or less professional, so that things do not devolve into mere skin color? The producers have succeeded in at least one regard: they have me writing about their show and you reading it.
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