the responsible non-divisive grownups.

[sisyphusshrugged]

or not. Maybe there's a blogger in the woodpile here somewhere?

For the first time since it went on the air in 2000, the hit CBS reality television program “Survivor” will divide its teams — or tribes, as they are known on the show — along racial lines.

For the first half of the series this fall, four teams of five members will be made up of blacks, Asian-Americans, Hispanics and whites. They will compete in weekly challenges against each other, and the losing group will have to vote out a member of its own team.

Mark Burnett, the series producer, said in a telephone interview yesterday that the decision to organize the teams by race was made in group discussions with CBS executives and was in no way intended to promote racial divisiveness.

“In America today,” Mr. Burnett said, “I really don’t believe there are many people who hate each other because of their race. But even though people may work together, they do tend in their private lives to divide along social and ethnic lines.”

Mr. Burnett noted that in many cities, members of ethnic groups tended to cluster in neighborhoods. “In New York you will find areas like Little Afghanistan,” he said. “Maybe in the year 3010, when we’re all coffee-colored, it really will make no difference. But right now, it is what it is.”

Mr. Burnett said that “Survivor” and other shows had often been criticized for a lack of ethnic diversity. “We’re always hearing about how we only have two token blacks on the show,” he said. And the predominance of whites has been reflected in the show’s applicants, with more than 80 percent of them white, he said.

For the new contest, Mr. Burnett said, the show reached out to social and church groups to bring in more applicants of different backgrounds. He said the results had been gratifying. “We got so many good people we expanded the number of contestants to 20 instead of the usual 16,” he said.

Both CBS and Mr. Burnett acknowledged that the new format could be criticized. “I know it’s going to be controversial,” he said. “I’m not an idiot.”

In a statement, CBS said it “fully recognizes the controversial nature” of the format change. But it expressed confidence in the program’s ability to handle the situation sensitively.

Yes! I see this! A man who who dismisses racial tensions in America with "it is what it is" while washing his hands of the possible unwisdom of asking the country to root for people with their own skin color to whup people of other skin colors in a notoriously vicious competition is just the man to handle the challenge sensitively.

I'm sure the fact that CBS, under Sumner Redstone, is a huge corporate supporter of a badly-damaged political party which is trying to race-bait its way back into office in November had nothing at all to do with this travesty getting the go-ahead from the former Tiffany network.

edit: Steve educates Mr. Burnette on those people he doesn't believe exist in America

sadly, I linked to the wrong Steve post. Even more sadly, it was also appropriate.

So's this one.

Comments

[ckd]

Hmm, let's do some numbers here.

80% of their applicants are white.

80% of 16 is... hmm...12.8. Round up because we're having trouble finding fractional people to appear on the show, and we get 13.

So we should have 3 non-whites on each season. 2? Every time?

And it's not like anyone ever edits the show to highlight comments by other players about particular people being lazy....

[paraleipsis.livejournal.com]

What the fucking, fucking fuck?

[jmhm.livejournal.com]

My favorite comment so far came from a coworker, who said "Asian is one group?"