Amazing Race

The decision by the overseers of the TV show “Survivor” to divide competitor teams by race in its upcoming season was not a publicity stunt. I know that’s the case this because I’ve been hearing and reading everyone associated with “Survivor” say so, to every media outlet in existence, all day. The whole thing is a “social experiment,” they say (an assertion Lisa de Moraes examines in entertaining fashion in this Washington Post story).

Moreover, The Times reports:

Mark Burnett, the series producer, said in a telephone interview yesterday that the decision to organize the teams by race was made in group discussions with CBS executives and was in no way intended to promote racial divisiveness.

“In America today,” Mr. Burnett said, “I really don’t believe there are many people who hate each other because of their race. But even though people may work together, they do tend in their private lives to divide along social and ethnic lines.”

Mr. Burnett noted that in many cities, members of ethnic groups tended to cluster in neighborhoods. “In New York you will find areas like Little Afghanistan,” he said. “Maybe in the year 3010, when we’re all coffee-colored, it really will make no difference. But right now, it is what it is.”

So the idea really isn’t to promote racial divisivness: The idea is to exploit racial divisiveness. That’s different! And in a way it’s surprising no one came up with this concept sooner. It’s not like race- and ethnicity-related matters aren’t already a regular feature of the news cycle, whether it’s debates about immigration or racial profiling at airports, or that politician in Virginia welcoming a non-white man to America, or Andrew Young’s unfortunate remarks about Korean, Jewish, and Arab shopkeepers seling wilted vegetables to blacks. If Americans want a dialogue about race, there’s an opportunity every single day.

What Burnett seems to have concluded is that we don’t want a dialogue. We want an argument. No, better than that, we want a flat-out competition. Let’s all pick sides, root for somebody, and see who wins. As Burnett might say: It is what it is. In this case what it is, is something you can sell ads against.