From my very astute friend:
"I probably won't watch it because it is on teevee and I don't watch much of that these days, but for the record, I think Mark Burnett can pull off the race thing.
At first I had the same reaction as everyone else. Oy.
Then I thought about it and thought, what's the big deal? The big deal is that a show that divides people by race will challenge our delusion of being race-blind. We are not only NOT race-blind, but we shouldn't TRY to be race blind. Being white in America is significant. Being black in America is significant. If we pretend it is not, then we can't progress.
Most people's revulsion at the idea of a race-based Survivor is not because it risks perpetuating stereotypes, but because it deals with race, something that we as a culture are entirely unequipped to address. It's awkward and one of the unfortunate legacies of the 60s is to pretend that race and racism is a thing of the past.
However, to truly do this Survivor right, it should not only have the teams split by race, but there should be black, white, Latino, and Asian editing crews that produce 4 different shows. I can guarantee that the producers and editors will be 90% white and that will have more impact on the final product than the race of the competitors.
The "black" Survivor can be shown during the day because they're all lazy and unemployed."
Indeed. All good points. My initial response to the manufactured outrage over this version of the Survivor TeeVee show was, "great!" My second reaction was, "Mark Burnett, you genius sonofabitch. You did it again. Way to inflate ratings." I understand the next version will create teams based on physical handicaps, religions, and beauty standards. Oh, just kidding!
Survivor has created teams by sex, they've created teams by age. Why not race? Exactly, and finally, to be honest. How interesting. Clever. For the first time in a very long time, I am genuinely intrigued. Sure, there could be outcomes that prove embarrassing for one or more of the teams. But, whatever. It's all in good TeeVee fun. Let's evolve. Let's move past race. Besides, the mulatto team will kick some serious ass!
Even more interesting though, is the notion of editing. I have always believed that you could create a seriously interesting series of these TeeVee "reality" shows by pitting different editing teams against each other. In this case let's not take race into consideration. Simply, two, four, or a dozen editing crews (and directors) receive the raw footage and tell the most compelling story they can. I believe that we'd have such variety of output that it would be quite interesting. Perhaps the same outcome, but really different output.
