Oh The Humanity

In the manufactured crisis of the moment, the PC crowd is in a tizzy about Survivor using – gasp – race to separate the contestants into teams. What, exactly, is so troubling about a group of Asians battling a group of White guys battling a group of Hispanics battling a group of Blacks in a relay race?

I have even been accused of being racist for pointing at that this arbitrary separation is no big deal. So tell me who is the racist? The person that thinks that teams doing logic puzzles can approach a game regardless of the racial makeup of the teams or the person that feels pointing out the differences in the color of skin is unmentionable?

A group of New York City officials are a bit miffed about the tribe setup in the newest installment of CBS's Survivor, which begins its new season in a few short weeks. You see, in order to keep the franchise as fresh as possible after thirteen editions of the program Mark Brunett has decided to split the tribes along racial lines: blacks, Asians, Latinos and whites.

Well, NYC officials aren't happy about that. According to City Councilman John Liu, the division along racial lines will promotes divisiveness. Liu, along with a coalition of officials, are asking CBS to reconsider its plans to air the program because it will promote racial division and negative typecasts. The network is defending the show, saying that the racially-divided theme of this season follows the show's tradition of introducing new creative elements and casting structures that reflect cultural and social issues.

Let me be the first person to mention publicly how thankful I am that government officials do not (yet) get to decide what is on my TV. Can you imagine the bland, substance free drivel that would crowd the airwaves if hack politicians got a veto? You probably don’t even have to venture outside the NYC City Council to find someone that would be offended by just about anything.

So now that the airwaves are safe for now, perhaps the NYC City Council can tackle more troubling issues like the suffering of Geese or the color of their taxi driver’s socks.