Separated By Race (Repfanz)

Okay I wasn't going to mention this, but since it seems to be entertainment news and it involves race. I guess I better say something about the new season of "Survivor." The new season of "Survivor" will have the twist of all twists in reality television. The "tribes" will be broken down between races. Yup, you heard and read it right. There will be a white tribe, black tribe, hispanic tribe and asian tribe competing against one another. Now some folks are outraged and expressing their frustation over a damn televison show. Quite frankly, I'm a little surprised that people are upset about the upcoming season of "Survivor" and the issue of race. I mean everywhere we look and read, we hear something that is race related. Hurricane Katrina was a national tragedy and yet it was eventually broken down by race. The treatment of some professional athletes is often broken down by race. Every survey or study is broken down by race, i.e. health issues, salaries and social issues. Race has been and will always be a good subject to talk about. If you need to spark controversey, bring up race and you got controversey.

So what makes "Survivor" different? The producers and network are in the businesss of making money and in order to make money, they need asses on couches and eyes glued on the set. And besides, who among us is not curious to see the outcome of who will win. We all have been in this situation before. Remember the 1987 Super-Bowl? The Washington Redskins were taking on the Denver Broncos. Doug Williams, a black quarterback was going against John Elway, a white quarterback. The game was split along racial lines. Most blacks, like me was pulling for Redskins and most whites were pulling for the Broncos. The game featured a tale of two cities, one majority white Denver and two, the majority black Washington DC.

And the network who hosted the Super Bowl that year knew it. The media knew it and so did the NFL. Where was the outrage? I'll tell you. There wasn't any. Everybody wanted to see if Williams could shake the stereotype that most black quarterbacks carried. Are they smart enough? Can they lead a team? Can they maintain discipline by not running first? All of that was being questioned against a quarterback who would be a Hall of Famer and arguebly one of the best ever.

So what is "Survivor" doing? They are looking to shake some of the stereotypes that races have. Will blacks be able to compete in the swimming contests? Can the Asian be able to compete in speed and agility contests? All of those questions will be asked and studied.

And guess what, we all are going to have our asses attached to the couch and eyes glued on the set.

Controversy:

It was reported by Jacque Reid of the Steve Harvey Morning Show on her entertainment report that Rush Limbaugh made a comment about the black tribe and the swimming competition. According to Reid, Limbaugh said that black aren't buouyant.

I have taken the liberty to post Limbaugh's comments with a caller named Tony:

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_082306/content/rush_on_a_roll.guest.html

Also please take the liberty to look at the articles and study attached to the transcript...