Survivor: Cook Islands, Week 1

I finally got around to watching the first episode of the new race-based Survivor: Cook Islands. It’s hard to tell in the initial episode of a reality show how it’s going to go and who the “characters” will be, but I can already spot a few things.

I thought it was interesting, but not surprising, that the members of Hispanic team (Aitu) and the African-American team (Hiki) when interviewed both were really happy about the teams being separated along ethnic lines and they felt this made their team “the strongest.” They both felt they had to “represent” and show the other teams (and presumably America) how well they could compete. The white team felt no such pressure, and it fact, it would’ve sounded bizarre if they’d expressed the same sentiment.

Only one member of the Asian team (Puka) felt that they as Asians had something to prove. I can already see a schism on that team. The member expressing that sentiment, Cao Boi (“Cowboy”), is a self-proclaimed “boat person” from Viet Nam, and he’s one of the older contestants. The other members of the Puka tribe seem to be mildly embarrassed by him. They are younger, better educated, and he views them as “Americanized.” In an interesting segment, Cao Boi “cured” Brad of a headache by removing a “bad wind” from his head in a way the show played up to look mystical. Brad and the others were politely amazed that it worked, but they came off as weirded out by Cao Boi, which blows away the Asian stereotype of respect for elders.

There wasn’t much focus on the white or Hispanic team in this episode, save for a tiff over losing some chickens in the former tribe and a tiff over the correct way to build a shelter in the latter. The African-American team had the spotlight on them because they managed to blow the first challenge of the game and had to go to tribal council and vote off a member. Sekou emerged as the leader of the Hiki tribe on day one, and if you watch the show you know that leaders are often taken out early before they can become too powerful. The Hiki tribe conformed to at least one stereotype – they split along gender lines. When Jeff Probst, the show’s host, gave the losing tribe the right to name a member of another tribe to be sent to “Exile Island” as a penalty, Sekou and Nate unilaterally decided to punish Jonathan on the white tribe and didn’t ask their three female teammates for their opinion. When Jeff pointed this out to the women (which embarrassed them), it was guaranteed that one of the men was going to get booted. Though Sekou said the women would be stupid to get rid of them (I agree), Nate cautioned that the women “don’t think they need a man, they think they can do it on their own.” They knew one of them was going, and it was Sekou.

The choice of Jonathan as the one to be sent to Exile Island bears noting. Before the challenge, Yul from the Asian team pointed out that Jonathan had absconded with one of the chickens Yul had secured from the boat that brought the contestants to the game site. Nate and Sekou, rather than choosing a physically strong member of another tribe to send away, took on the role of enforcers and made it clear that they were penalizing Jonathan for his behavior. Needless to say, Jonathan was pissed. We’ll see how that plays out. It may be a moot point, since if the Hiki tribe loses again, the women will likely boot Nate.

Technorati tags: Survivor | Diversity | Race | Reality Shows

Survivor & Race: Panama: Exile Island

Last in my series of observations about racial elements in Survivor.

Panama: Exile Island: Bobby, an attorney, was on the "young male" team. Cirie, a nurse, was on the "older women" team. Cirie was grossly overweight and had no outdoors skills, but she managed to survive being voted out in episode one while a much fitter woman was ousted. In episode 2 the four teams were consolidated into two and Cirie chose Bobby to be on the Casaya team. In episode 4 Bobby was described by Danielle, a white female teammate, as “not being a gentleman” because he wanted to use the bathroom won in an immunity challenge as a bathroom (God forbid) instead of as a storage shed for wood. She later also accused him of not helping in the camp when others were complaining about her not helping out.

In episode 5 Bobby won the food challenge for the team, but when the team lost the immunity challenge, Danielle engineered for Bobby to be voted off. She described him as “selfish” for sleeping in the outhouse and sharing a bottle of wine with Bruce, the Japanese man. Strangely, Bruce, equally culpable, was never penalized for that indiscretion. Bruce made it to the final six, but exited the game because of a medical emergency. Cirie, initially considered "lazy" because of her lack of outdoors skils, made it to the final four, but lost a tie-breaking fire building challenge.

That's pretty much the run down of race and Survivor. There's at least one Survivor season I didn't see, so I'll add that if it comes on OLN.

Technorati tags: Survivor | Diversity | Race | Reality Shows

Survivor & Race: Pearl Islands, All Stars, Guatemala

Continuing with my observations.

Pearl Islands: Osten and Tijuana were on the Morgan tribe. Sandra, a Puerto Rican, was on the Drake tribe. Tijuana was described as "over-excited by things" by Nicole, a white female teammate 10 minutes into episode 1. Nicole was voted out that same episode. The Drake tribe started out really well because Sandra, the only one who spoke Spanish, was able to work out good deals for supplies. That was the only time in the series that Sandra stuck her neck out.

Osten, who had traded all but his drawers for supplies, talked of quitting early in episode 2. Tijuana talked him out of temporarily, but when the team lost their second immunity challenge, he asked the tribe to vote him out. The tribe's leader, Andrew, told him they needed his “physical strength.” Despite Osten's wishes, he wasn't voted out -- a frail white teammate was voted out instead.

In episode three, Osten was chosen as the physically strongest member and had to hold a teammate suspended over water for two hours. He failed to beat Rupert, but still didn't get voted out. Osten finally exited the game in episode 7 after once again asking to be voted out. No vote was actually done -- Jeff, the show's host, simply extinguished his torch. Then Jeff made a big deal out of this and kept calling the guy a quitter like he owed him or something.

Tijuana was later blindsided by the scheming Johnny “Fairplay” and was the 10th person voted out. She was one of the few black women not to be considered "strong," but like Linda from Survivor: Africa, there was an early attempt to paint her as crazy or high-strung.

Sandra, the latina, won the game by never being seen as a threat.

Survivor All Stars: Alicia from Survivor: Outback was the twelfth person voted off and the third member of the jury. She was not targeted, but she was described as “having a big mouth” by Boston Rob, the good friend of Sean from Survivor: Marquesas.

Guatemala: No black contestants, so I didn't watch it. CBS has probably realized that other people of color do the same thing when it comes to these reality shows. So if white viewership is down, there needs to be some way to boost the numbers. Hence, they've increased the number of contestants to 20 for Survivor: Cook Islands and only five of them are white.

I ain't done yet, there's one more post on this topic.

Technorati tags: Survivor | Diversity | Race | Reality Shows

Survivor & Race: Thailand and Amazon

More observations about race in Survivor:

Thailand: Ghandia and Ted began the game on the same team. They started bonding, but by episode three she accused him of “becoming sexual” with her at night and revealed that she’d been raped in college. She tried to forge an alliance of the women based on painting Ted as a sexual predator. It didn’t work and she was voted off in episode four.

Interestingly, Shi-an, the Taiwanese girl on the opposite team, admitted to the camera in episode five that she was shocked at how “culturally different” she felt from her white teammates and said she “stuck out like a sore thumb.” She was considered a know-it-all by her team. Her white teammate Robb was repulsed by the fact that she ate chicken livers and gizzards. She was branded a traitor and voted off when there was a false merge and she complained to Ted’s team about being cut out on her own team because of race.

Ted made it to the final five before being labeled "not a team player" and voted out.

Amazon: This was the first Survivor game with no black male. The black female, Joanna, objected to having the immunity idol near her in the camp because she felt it was “sacrilegious.” She got into it with the deaf girl, Christy, in episode two because of her religious beliefs.

Joanna was praised for her "physical strength" at the tribal council in episode two by a teammate who was desperate not to get voted off. In episode four Joanna was described by Deena, an openly gay feminist, as being “the most physical” with “too much power, too much force” and a “fierce competitor.” Joanna was voted out that episode.

Daniel, a Chinese male, was accused of “not being friendly” in episode one, but he became friends in episode two with Matthew, a white teammate who spoke fluent Mandarin. Daniel was betrayed by Matthew and voted out in episode three.

In the above examples and the ones from yesterday you can see the emerging pattern with regards to the black contestants. The black men are "lazy workhorses" and the black women are "strong-willed." There's also a pattern with the Asian contestants -- they're considered "not friendly."

To be honest, Ghandia and Ted really bothered me, as did the ultra-religious Joanna. Regarding the latter, it was very interesting that Deena, the lesbian, basically axed Joanna for not being feminine. Ain't that some shit?

I almost felt sorry for Shi-an, but I think she learned a very important lesson about how others perceive her. It was funny, she was quite lazy, but that's not the problem her team had with her. They clearly thought that she thought she was smarter than them, so she got bounced because of an Asian stereotype that generally is considered positive.

More to come...

Technorati tags: Survivor | Diversity | Race | Reality Shows

Survivor & Race: Borneo, Outback, Africa, Marquesas

As promised, here's part one of my observations about the racial things that have gone on in Survivor.

Borneo: Gervase and Ramona began the game on the same team. Ramona was voted off early, but Gervase made it to the merging of the tribes. Gervase was called “lazy,” Ramona was called “stand-offish.”

Outback: Nick and Alicia began the game on the same team. Both made it to merge, but female was voted off first. Nick, a Harvard law student, was called "lazy," Alicia was called “too strong.”

Africa: Clarence and Linda began the game on different teams. Clarence was called "selfish," Linda was called a “wild woman.” Clarence made the major faux pas of sharing a can of beans with a white female in episode one without clearing it with the entire team, but he was kept because he had “a strong back,” as one white male contestant put it. Linda was voted off early, but Clarence made it to merge before being booted.

Marquesas: Sean and Vecepia began the game on the same team. Sean was called "lazy" and accused behind his back of “not carrying his weight” as early as episode two. Sean was praised for his physical strength, though he was actually one of the shortest men in the game.

Both Sean and Vecepia made it to the merge. Vecepia distanced herself from Sean when he became unpopular. Sean was the first black to openly talk about race in the series. Sean also was the first black to win a shared reward challenge post merger. He made it to the final five. Vecepia made it to the final two -- and won the game. Distancing herself from Sean when he began to talk about race made it possible for her to fly under the radar.

There's a definite pattern to how the non-white contestants were described by the white contestants in the shows.

More to come...

Technorati tags: Survivor | Diversity | Race | Reality Shows

Survivor Gets Racial

MSNBC was buzzing today with the news that the upcoming season of Survivor: Cook Islands will divide the 16 contestants by race. The game will start with four teams: Blacks, Whites, Hispanics and Asians. All day long there’s been a parade of minorities on the screen. There were two Asian women, a Dominican guy, two black guys, etc., all saying how terrible this is and it’ll set race relations back 50 years and Rosa Parks is turning in her grave and on and on.

How come no one ever asks me?? I think this is great. I will definitely watch the show.

I found the discussion amusing for a few reasons:

• Survivor has been segregating the contestants for years. If memory serves me, starting with Survivor: Amazon, the teams were split along gender lines. In the most recent season, Survivor: Exile Island, the initial division was Old Men, Young Men, Old Women and Young Women. Dividing the contestants by race was the next logical step. I think they should go for broke and have Homosexuals vs. Straight People in Survivor 14. I would watch that too.
  


• Survivor (and The Apprentice, Treasure Hunters, Amazing Race, etc.) are always racial and people are acting like they never noticed. When you have a show in which there are 14 white people and two black people, and people start forming strategic alliances, the black people are fucked*. I saw the reverse happen on that Sean Combs reality show with the aspiring rappers. The white contestants were marginalized so fast, they were in tears, literally.

I’ve been tracking the racial aspect of Survivor for a while now. I had watched a bit of the first season when it debuted, but I never watched the subsequent seasons. I became involved in an online Survivor game last year and I needed reference material because I’d forgotten what the show was all about. I began watching reruns of the earlier seasons on the OLN network and the racial shit was so in-your-face, I started documenting it so that I could blog about it. I took notes, which I will share.

Now, I said I'll watch Survivor: Race Baiters, but I'm cynical. Is there going to be something racial about the challenges as well? The producers always pick black folks who can't swim! I guess that shit is funny to them, watching the black folks coughing up seawater. Fuck that. Contrary to popular belief, there are black people who can swim. Will the entire black team drown??

Here's another scenario: If the producers of the show are smartasses (No! Couldn't happen) they'll pick quartets that have natural intra-racial or intra-ethnic issues. For example, let's take the Hispanic group. Let's say they consist of a Mexican, a Puerto-Rican, a Dominican and a Caucasian Cuban. These people might not have shit in common.

More later...


*Yes, I do know that a brother managed to win The Apprentice last season and a sister did actually win one season of Survivor. I’ll talk about how she managed to do that in the next post. As for the brother on The Apprentice, I stopped watching, so I can’t comment on him in particular, but I can comment about Kwame from season one.

Technorati tags: Survivor | Diversity | Race | Reality Shows