The "Race" Begins

On Thursday evening, the season opener of "Survivor: Cook Islands" was broadcast. You are probably already aware of the tremendous amount of hype surrounding this 13th season of Survivor. The teams on this show have historically been divided into tribes. In recent years, these tribe divisions have been based on more glaringly obvious differences (i.e. gender, age, etc...) This year, CBS decided to go there and divide the tribes by race. I feel that I have to place that word in bold type because merely mentioning it still stirs up some of the most raw emotion and tension in this country.

When I first became enlightened about the premise of this season's Survivor, I was very disappointed in the decision that CBS made to go forth with this. I initially felt that it was very irresponsible of them to expose an already racially oversensitive nation to a "reality" show that was based on racial segregation. I was so turned off, in fact, that I decided then and there that I would not even entertain the thought of tuning in on Thursday evenings, although I had watched previous seasons of Survivor. My reaction was knee-jerk to say the least; admittedly, I knew little to nothing about the actual dynamics of this particular season. I only knew that the tribes would be divided by race. On Thursday, when 8:00pm came, I fought with the decision of whether or not to give the show a chance. After all, I really hate to completely dismiss anything based on limited knowledge of it. So by 8:30, I talked myself into watching the show. Here's what I discovered:

At this point in the season, the individual tribes have not begun to interact with the other groups yet. In fact, each tribe only saw the other groups on two occasions - at the very beginning of the episode, and during the immunity challenge toward the end of the show. The focus, thus far, is on how the individuals in each tribe are interacting with one another. THAT has proven to be much more interesting in my opinion. After the official CBS announcement about the way the tribes were divided on this season of Survivor, the greatest concern that was vocalized was the promoting of racial segregation. Many were most likely occupied with the image of the white team, for example, excluding say, the Hispanics, and plotting against them. Interestingly enough, that concept did play out to some extent, but not in the way that many of us were envisioning.

I only saw the last half hour, which mostly focused on the inner-dynamic of the black tribe (Hiki Tribe). This group consists of two men and three women. Naturally, the two men (Nate and Sekou) paired up and begin to bond the way that guys tend to. I expected the three women to do the same. However, two of the women (Sundra and Rebecca) appeared to exclude the third woman (Stephanie). Please bear in mind that it is within the black tribe that what I'm describing takes place. Stephanie even points this out at the very end of the episode. She felt that it was "strange" that all three of the women started off as strangers, yet Sundra and Becca withdrew from her and paired up with one another to bond. So now what? How should we feel about this divisiveness that took place?

I only watched a half hour of the episode. During those 30 minutes, I came to the conclusion that human beings are simply human beings. And we behave based on human nature. We are all more comfortable with what is familiar to us. People don't like to be taken out of their comfort zones unless absolutely necessary. So, when given the option, we prefer to operate within the confines of who and what we understand, and who we think will understand us in return. No matter how we are divided or grouped, our human nature will always dictate how we interact with others. If we keep this in mind, maybe we can diminish the amount of hasty responses we typically have whenever a discussion about race is on the table. Sure, I still think that CBS only came up with this concept to boost ratings for their network, which will work, by the way. But here's hoping that we can all still learn something in the process.

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