Survivor Diversity

When it was announced that the teams on this season's Survivor would be split along racial lines, I like everyone else thought that is was pretty silly. They mentioned it would increase the minorities in the game, but creating competing teams just didn't seem right in a world trying to overcome stereotypes. Thankfully, when asked what they thought about it, all the players downplayed it. They felt pride representing their part of society, but it was not as though they were competing against another race.

My viewpoint and feeling about this little experiment changed during last weeks episode. After only two weeks as four segregated teams, they were combined and mixed up into two teams. It's a new look for Survivor and I really like it. Every season before now had a token Asian and one or two token African Americans. It represented their percentage of the population, but it always put a spotlight on them. But I like the current mix. Your alpha-type whites with your alpha-type blacks with your alpha-type asians and your alpha-type hispanics. One big mixed alpha-type Survivor family.

Maybe another reason this mixed make-up felt comfortable to me was that it reminded me of high school. Although it was a Catholic school and did not have students of other religious backgrounds, the racial make-up was quite varied. Quite similar to Survivors make-up. Throw in some Polish, Germans, Irish, and Italians and you'd come pretty close.

I realize this mix-up has only just begun and there's still a possiblity that tensions may arise along racial lines later on. But at least right now, I'll liking it.