THE WEEK IN NEWS: TURN BACK THE CLOCK EDITION
Here's all the racially divisive news that's fit to print for the week:
- Survivor -- Separate but Equal Edition: This season's Survivor is dividing contestants into racially-segregated teams: Asians, Whites, Blacks, and "Hispanics." At first glance, this doesn't seem like an inherently bad idea. It's pretty much how we allocate prison housing and assign children to public schools in this country. On the plus side, it'll be the first time there's been more than one token Asian male on a major reality show. I admit I'm curious enough to tune in just to see whether CBS uses this as an opportunity to further set back the representations of people of color in reality shows. As my friend Hank Fong asks, what if the Asian contestants only win the math-related immunity challenges? Here's my early prediction: no person of color is going to vote for a white person to win the $1 million prize ... especially after Mark Burnett grants the minority contestants only three-fifths of a vote.
- State Senator - Separate but Equal Edition: Speaking of segregation, Utah State Senator Chris Buttars recently opined that the landmark Supreme Court case of Brown vs. Board of Education was decided wrongly. Yet, he claims, "I don't think there's a racial [sic] bone in my body. ... I don't see black and white. I see people. I always have." The very fact that he equates the word "racial" with the word "racist" is a big tipoff to his high rank in the Klan. I suspect his color-blindness is the very reason he never noticed that none of his slaves were white. If this makes bigger national news, I look forward to him defending himself with the classic "Some of my best friends are Negro" defense.
- Mexicans on a Plane: A new xenophobic television commercial from the National Republican Senators Committee gets my vote for the Willie Horton ad of 2006:
- Macaca Fracas: Nearly every Asian and Chicano/Latino person in the US has heard something along the lines of "Welcome to America" or "You speak English well," even when he or she is an American-born US citizen. But American S.R. Sidarth is special because he was welcomed to the country by Virgina Senator George Allen and then further greeted by him with a derogotary epithet -- on camera -- which was held by Sidarth himself. Suddenly, YouTube has become an election-altering political force and the Daily Show finds a brilliant way to send Rob Corddry off:
(Credit: Dima)
(Oliver chimes in) How did I know Junichi would beat me to the punch on the whole Survivor angle for the new season? Here's my question: does this mean that the producers didn't consider:
All I can say, as someone currently putting together a course on how pop culture frames issues of race, class and gender, god bless you Mark Burnett.
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