The big pop culture story today (New York Times, reg. required) is that "Survivor" is "playing the race card" (or really the "ratings card") by dividing up its tribes into people of color and white people. It got me thinking about how a lot of reality TV is basically this warped prism that reflects these types of social issues in our society. It also feeds off of its characters being in conflict with one another. And the way to ensure that characters are in conflict from a casting point of view is to choose people whose values will clash, or who will hook up and break up, or someone who will just piss everyone off (aka Puck on the "Real World").

This is the way of reality TV. It started with the "Real World" and has permeated almost every show since (except for the makeover genre). I guess what's "shocking" about this -- is that it's just really blatant and pits a group of people against another group of people. Unlike the trying to be more PC Ice Cube series Black.White, where two families get to walk in each other's shoes, "Survivor" is subtly saying, may the superior race (for whatever stereotypical reason) win. "Survivor" by its very nature is kind of a Darwinian show -- it's survival of the fittest based on a mix of physical endurance and mental cunning. So instead of the let's swap wives of a different race or class or who may be vegetarian with one who may be Cajun and see how people react, it's like, let's just pit two groups against each other and let them duke it out. Future seasons could include gay people vs. straight people or Christians vs. every other religion or rich people vs. poor people (that's one I'd like to see).

It will be interesting to see if this generation of teens, who have been characterized as "color mute," will tune in....What do you think?

Technorati Tag: Survivor

Posted by anastasia