HORROR OR HYPOCRISY ?
The controversy swirling around CBS’s Survivor series move to pit different races against each other has provided a feeding frenzy for the media and has major corporate sponsors pulling out of the series.
I may be missing a point here but aren’t the Olympics, pitting one nation against another, country against country, tantamount to the same thing? Isn’t China against the United States, in the truest sense, a race competition? Israel against Saudi Arabia? Mexico against India?
For centuries, wars have been fought based upon cultural and racial differences, fueled by greed. The Olympics provided a safe playground for all nations to show their colors and standing in friendly world competitions.
We watch these competitions day in and day out, disguised as wrestling matches, movies, sports competitions and, yes, news.
Isn’t CBS merely providing yet another friendly “playground” as an outlet for competitive games? Let’s not make more of this than has existed since the first geographic boundaries were drawn.
CBS has its agenda for the series – ratings. How it goes about managing the selection of participants and competitions will be a challenge in and of itself. But, the network is also providing an opportunity, for those who believe in their cultural heritage, to shine.
Those who profess horror at the thought of what they accept wrapped in a different package need to sit and think of the hypocrisy of it all.
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2 comments:
An Olympiad experience is ripe with people of different races and cultures socializing outside the olympic village. What we see on TV is bit-sized experiences packaged to sell new SUVs and life insurance annuities. When I look at the new Survivor, I question why "we" are reduced to promoting superiority of any one group above others for a cash prize.
I agree with you whole heartedly Greg. I find the concept of marginalizing ethnic groups to sell advertising both offensive and exploitive. They call it the biggest racial experiment ever to take place on their show I call it a tasteless ploy in a time when we are already suffering from way to many racial injustices. They should have skipped the fakeness and smoke screens and divided them between Lebanese, Israelis, North Koreans and Japanesse contestants and handed them all a nuclear bomb during sweeps week.
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