Race, Fruit, & Survivor
TBP (The Beige Pain-in-the-ass) has been hounding me about my take on Survivor’s decision to break contestants into four tribes based on race. I threatened a blog post about this when the announcement was first made, but haven’t really been moved to actually write about it, mainly because I care so little about Survivor and believe my criticism will be misinterpreted.
But, I have finally been goaded into it by TBP’s repeated forwards of links with subject lines like “Preemptive rebuttal to your blog post.”
The problem I face in presenting my opinion is that my opinion isn’t reliant on actually seeing the show. Preposterous? I know TBP thinks so. But, my criticism is not about what the show will potentially do, that there will be, as some critics have said, inevitable editing choices based on stereotypes. So, as crazy as it may seem, and as much as it opens me up for easy counter-criticism, I haven’t and won’t watch the show.
See, my problem with the race-based tribes of Survivor is in the very concept of dividng people by race. I believe race is an illusion, a set of prejudices built upon the arbitrary decision to identify people by skin color.
Arbitrary in what way? Much like fruits, vegetables and plants. Ask anybody what the difference between fruits and vegatables is, and they will provide an answer based on seeds and vines and trees and such, but the truth is that fruits and vegetables are all just plants. We have made up arbitrary distinctions based on which part of the plant we happen to eat. The fruit/vegetable distinction actually says very little about the plant in question, and much more about us.
And, we’ve decided that skin color is a distinction that can predict other traits about a person. That skin color and hair color and eye color actually say something meaningful about who a person is and will become. And dividing people in a game show based on these traits reinforces the idea that these traits actually hold significance. But, they don’t.
Which isn’t to say that cultural distinction don’t exist, or that racism doesn’t exist. There are in fact cultural differences that have a high correlation to race, but not because of a necessary link but rather as an extension of our belief in the arbitrary significance of those traits. They matter, they correlate with culture, because we think they do.
And what we think means everything in this case. Besides reinforcing the idea that race is a meaningful way to divide people, that certain people have innate characteristics, this move by Survivor presents the opportunity for prejudices that individuals hold to be played out in a perceived “safe” venue. So, when Rush Limbaugh goes on about black people being poor swimmers and Hispanics being willing to do things other people won’t, he can shrug and say “Hey, I’m just sayin’, in the content of the game…”
What it comes down to is this – I think CBS played the race card to boost ratings. I think they were willing to support the idea that people of different races have different innate characteristics, which is the foundational idea of racism, to boost their audience and make a few more bucks. And I think that sucks.
I’m not calling for them to pull the show, or for advertiser boycotts, or anything like that. But, I’d sure like to see more in-depth discussion, a discourse that can get beyond the “c’mon, it’s not so bad, it’s just TV” rationale to which even Salon falls prey, one which would be the only (or at least by far the best) hope for any positive outcome from what host Jeff Probst has called “a social experiment.”
And, one more thing, before I get any of TBP’s flak about being a white dude and talking about racism when I should be “let[ting] minorities dictate amongst themselves what is or isn’t racist?” White is as much a race as black, which is to say not much of anything in my worldview, I’ll admit, but for two long has been seen as invisible, as being without race, which to my mind reinforces the idea of white superiority as much as seeing women as penis-less reinforces male superiority. The discourse on race affects everyone, and everyone SHOULD (I know, I know) take part.
Ideally, I’d like to see everyone take part in dismantling the idea that race means anything, as that seems to me the key to dismantling racism.
Interesting side note – The flap over whether a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable stems from the fact that fruit was assessed a higher import duty in the late 1800’s than a vegetable, and a tomato grower successfully petitioned the Supreme Court for the vegetable designation to improve his profit margin. Hmmm, reinforce arbitrary distinctions for financial gain – that sounds familiar.
But, I have finally been goaded into it by TBP’s repeated forwards of links with subject lines like “Preemptive rebuttal to your blog post.”
The problem I face in presenting my opinion is that my opinion isn’t reliant on actually seeing the show. Preposterous? I know TBP thinks so. But, my criticism is not about what the show will potentially do, that there will be, as some critics have said, inevitable editing choices based on stereotypes. So, as crazy as it may seem, and as much as it opens me up for easy counter-criticism, I haven’t and won’t watch the show.
See, my problem with the race-based tribes of Survivor is in the very concept of dividng people by race. I believe race is an illusion, a set of prejudices built upon the arbitrary decision to identify people by skin color.
Arbitrary in what way? Much like fruits, vegetables and plants. Ask anybody what the difference between fruits and vegatables is, and they will provide an answer based on seeds and vines and trees and such, but the truth is that fruits and vegetables are all just plants. We have made up arbitrary distinctions based on which part of the plant we happen to eat. The fruit/vegetable distinction actually says very little about the plant in question, and much more about us.
And, we’ve decided that skin color is a distinction that can predict other traits about a person. That skin color and hair color and eye color actually say something meaningful about who a person is and will become. And dividing people in a game show based on these traits reinforces the idea that these traits actually hold significance. But, they don’t.
Which isn’t to say that cultural distinction don’t exist, or that racism doesn’t exist. There are in fact cultural differences that have a high correlation to race, but not because of a necessary link but rather as an extension of our belief in the arbitrary significance of those traits. They matter, they correlate with culture, because we think they do.
And what we think means everything in this case. Besides reinforcing the idea that race is a meaningful way to divide people, that certain people have innate characteristics, this move by Survivor presents the opportunity for prejudices that individuals hold to be played out in a perceived “safe” venue. So, when Rush Limbaugh goes on about black people being poor swimmers and Hispanics being willing to do things other people won’t, he can shrug and say “Hey, I’m just sayin’, in the content of the game…”
What it comes down to is this – I think CBS played the race card to boost ratings. I think they were willing to support the idea that people of different races have different innate characteristics, which is the foundational idea of racism, to boost their audience and make a few more bucks. And I think that sucks.
I’m not calling for them to pull the show, or for advertiser boycotts, or anything like that. But, I’d sure like to see more in-depth discussion, a discourse that can get beyond the “c’mon, it’s not so bad, it’s just TV” rationale to which even Salon falls prey, one which would be the only (or at least by far the best) hope for any positive outcome from what host Jeff Probst has called “a social experiment.”
And, one more thing, before I get any of TBP’s flak about being a white dude and talking about racism when I should be “let[ting] minorities dictate amongst themselves what is or isn’t racist?” White is as much a race as black, which is to say not much of anything in my worldview, I’ll admit, but for two long has been seen as invisible, as being without race, which to my mind reinforces the idea of white superiority as much as seeing women as penis-less reinforces male superiority. The discourse on race affects everyone, and everyone SHOULD (I know, I know) take part.
Ideally, I’d like to see everyone take part in dismantling the idea that race means anything, as that seems to me the key to dismantling racism.
Interesting side note – The flap over whether a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable stems from the fact that fruit was assessed a higher import duty in the late 1800’s than a vegetable, and a tomato grower successfully petitioned the Supreme Court for the vegetable designation to improve his profit margin. Hmmm, reinforce arbitrary distinctions for financial gain – that sounds familiar.
posted by JJisafool at 2:22 PM
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