"... and you're the only one — that you have to play. And that's something they don't even have to worry about. Everybody can just be themselves. We have to be ourselves, but then hold back a little bit."
From "Survivor 42 recap: Drea and Maryanne take a stand/The complicated history of race on reality TV leads two players to take an emotional stand" (Entertainment Weekly).
ADDED: Here's how the racial discourse looked on last night's episode:
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48 comments:
I don't know what their emotional stand was, but I hope they understand that few people in a group of strangers feel they can just "be themselves".
Reality TV isn't.
So let's not try to pretend it is.
Blackquety Blackkk blaKK! Blaqke I'm so bored with it.
A full 19 years ago the reality TV satire "The Joe Schmo Show" parodied the "token minorities are voted off first" trope":
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0377024/
Racial tensions and complaints...never go away...
Joe Schmo was also unintentionally educational about reality TV fakeness and manipulation. The production suffered from several unintended turns.
Grow up.
Not even gonna read it… they can Fuck Right Off!!!
First, it’s “reality TV” which means it’s all bullshit.
Second, that whole narrative/viewpoint is bullshit. We can’t possibly understand them (because we don’t live in their world as a POC) but they can somehow fully understand us (even though they don’t live in our world as a non-POC) and that’s how they “know” that we can “just be ourselves” and they can’t, they have to hold back.
Like nobody else in the world white/black/yellow/green/purple or polka dotted feels like they can’t be themselves, or feels like they have to hold back?
What about the person who’s gay? The religious zealot? The CPA? The recovering alcoholic? The Hick from the south? The debutante? The orphan who grew up in foster care? The guy attracted to kids whose fighting like hell not to give in? The serial philanderer? The computer guru with no social skills? The social butterfly with no work skills? And on and on and on…
Everyone, I am willing to bet, has (at least in some situations) felt like they needed to hold back and (in other situations) felt free to be themselves. And it changes. Sometimes day to day sometimes minute to minute.
No, you can Fuck Off!! Thank you.
Sweet Jesus!! Survivor is still a thing??
People that can find issues in Survivor, or any TV show, should be dismissed with derision, and scorn.
TV is aimed at the left-hand side of the bell curve.
Amazed that show is still on the air. As someone stated, most reality shows are scripted and just appear to be real. I suppose this was supposed to grab some attention.
Interesting that once we "cut the cord", we get constant emails/flyers from our local cable TV offering DEALS! DEALS! DEALS! - and we're like 'no thanks, not even for free'.
If you are still watching this show there is no hope for you.
And didn't television season used to mean year? I don't think it's been 42 years since Survivor debuted, though it might seem that way.
"And that's something they don't even have to worry about. Everybody can just be themselves."
White people can be at ease around black people? On what planet does she live on? Because here on planet Earth we walk on eggshells.
"Racial tensions and complaints...never go away."
They are too useful for too many people.
There happen to be two black people sitting on the jury, but she ignores that 6 people were voted out prior. I don't remember their racial composition (which makes me a bad person in this brave new world) but they certainly weren't all black.
You can always take offense when you're looking to take offense.
I saw that last night. It is a shame they have been convinced they can't win because of the color of their skin. But then, I've always thought the game rigged against those that actually go out there and physically try to survive the elements. Those people are always targeted as being too preferable at the final vote, so those that can't quite perform as well vote them out.
There is great reward in interacting with people rather than bodies.
This goes way beyond race.
@Original Mike wrote: There happen to be two black people sitting on the jury, but she ignores that 6 people were voted out prior.
This is not news either. The current bastardized, brain-dead mainstream meaning of "racism" followed Paula Abdul's constant use of "racist" on American Idol. She'd say that whenever a nonwhite contestant (that she preferred) lost the call in vote to a white contestant. That's not racism, it's a simple popularity contest and opinion of talent.
"But, my views are the right views!"
The talented and black Michael Jordan and the talented multi-racial Tiger Woods both would easily have won either an athletic or popularity content in their primes. However, both of them have serious personal issues and few may want to live with either one. Sporting success (including Survivor) is always a mix between the physical and mental games. If you fixate on your own racial status in competition then you've lost the mental game before you started.
Or as wendbar said "Grow up."
"Sweet Jesus!! Survivor is still a thing??"
This has been an excellent season, Season 41, but the longstanding racial issue — the quote in the post title is from a Season 4! — drags the show down. People play as tribes and as individuals, and bringing in tribalism from the outside world makes things less fun for the audience, and ramping it up to social activism threatens to make the game unwatchable.
The 2 women you see in the clip — Drea and Maryann — were upset to see that a black man had just been voted out by the other group (a temporary division into 2 groups), but that man had just made a huge show of urging all the men to band together against the women. Drea and Maryann didn't see him do that, but their intense empathy for him was misplaced (misplaced because of feelings they brought into the game).
First we destroyed the Black communities in Africa by stealing them and bringing them here. Then we destroyed them by enslavement. Then by threat of murder and existing in a non-human state. Then by Jim Crow laws. Then, despite all that, as we headed into the 20th century, Black families and communities thrived in the early-mid 20th century. Still separate, but they thrived.
Then we unleashed Liberals/Progressives on them and the Black family-the last bastion of hope for those stolen from their native lands- were systematically destroyed. Then the Progressives/Marxists took over and have taught a generation of Blacks that they can never be OK in this society. That they can never just be themselves around others. They are taught to hate, to mistrust, and to continue to look at themselves as the other. And who helps them do this: White Liberals/Progressives and all colors of Marxists (BLM).
It's not nothing what Black people have gone through. But the only way out is to embrace their individuality, to be themselves, and not strive to be part of the Collective, the Tribe, who's only purpose is to keep all of us as 'the other'. In this country there can only be one tribe- united for individual liberty- or we most certainly will not continue.
Her statement, "And that's something they don't even have to worry about. Everybody can just be themselves." is wrong on it's face. Everybody worries to some extent how they come across, how they appear to others in the room, or (sometimes) online. All of us have our own inner things that we fight, and color has nothing to do with it. That's the extent of the damage done to the current generation of Black Americans. That they are as free as they want to be to do their lives, but are continually taught that they cannot.
Yes, there are outliers. Outlier incidents. But look at the vast majority of people, all of us, just working every day to do our lives. To get through this thing we call life. The 'Black experience' is only there if you allow it to be how you are identified. What about the 'Drea Experience'? Or the 'Maryanne Experience'? Before they were even born, before anyone had a chance to see what color their skin was, they were individuals in the womb with individual characteristics. No one else exactly like any of us.
This is a rambling mess and I apologize for it. But what drives me nuts is that it has appeared to me for years that teaching the Black community that it is a victim and that it cannot make it through a 'White' society is something that has been pounded into so many heads for so long that Black people ceased long ago to not only give themselves a break as individuals, but to give the rest of us a break as individuals. It's almost as if it's too profitable to keep Black people as 'others'. The question is- who is profitting?
"but that man had just made a huge show of urging all the men to band together against the women."
I actually expected Rocksroy to be the one making a scene, but he took it like a man. ;-)
This morning there was a fellow where I play golf who was all worked up about this.
When he looked at me for a response I said "Why the hell are you and your wife watching this dreck?"
And Jonathan was right when he said (paraphrasing) "you're calling me racist just because I'm white"). And Drea responds with the usual, 'oh, no, not you. It's those other people'. It was tedious.
ALTHOUSE: We watch it, so you won't have to.
Jeff Probst is 60. The Dude has that Dick Clark ageless look going on. Tried to listen to the video but its too much "I feel I have to tell the millions out there, blah blah". And "I understand what you're tryng to say, blah blah".
I can only compare to the early episodes where people were either more concise and to the point, or the editing was better. However, I did like everyone's LOOK. Especially the white dude going for the Robinson Cursoe/Pirate look.
"Drea and Maryann didn't see him do that, but their intense empathy for him was misplaced (misplaced because of feelings they brought into the game)."
Yep. Never trust men.
Turkish soap opera is a thing of beauty, just a powerful story line that embraces universal feelings of family, love, and faith.
The majority of American tv is garbage.
Netflix has a few hidden gems in a huge pile of junk.
Whining...
You're black. Deal with it.
'People play as tribes and as individuals...'
'Tribes' sounds like some straight-up racist bullshit right there...
Boo hoo! I don't watch this show, but I do notice at this point there are four black and three white participants. So there may be discrimination in favor of blacks.
I'm feeling sort of triggered.
"I don't watch this show, but I do notice at this point there are four black and three white participants. So there may be discrimination in favor of blacks."
I haven't kept track over the last few seasons, but I'd bet the ranch black contestants have exceeded their 14% of the population by a significant amount. If the black/white ratio isn't 50% people get this idea that discrimination must be at the root of it.
"Jeff Probst is 60. "
I've been wondering recently how old he was. This show will probably go on until he retires.
I am starting to believe that Black Americans are at a cultural tipping point. Either they will reject victimhood and join the mainstream, or they will cleave to a tribal mentality and be condemned to being a permanent underclass. I saw the same thing happen with rural whites during my youth in a steadily more urbanizing South.
"Boo hoo! I don't watch this show, but I do notice at this point there are four black and three white participants. So there may be discrimination in favor of blacks...."
Well, there were 2 black and 3 white members of a "tribal council," about to vote to eliminate one of them. Looking on were 2 jury members, that is, players who have already been eliminated.
There was another 5-player "tribal council" that had just voted out one person. In that group, which was all male, there were 3 players of Asian descent and 2 black players. The 3 Asian-descent guys voted out the one black guy who was then in the jury for the council you see in that clip.
That is, at the start of the show, there were 10 players left, and only 3 were of what seems to be completely European descent, i.e., white.
So why was Drea so upset that Rocksroy (the black guy) just got voted out? Maybe she was playing the game.
From the comments at the link: "My main peeve regarding Drea's comments during tribal council is that 8 people had been voted out since the beginning of the season; Chanelle who was the 8th person voted out was the first black person. Before Chanelle's ouster five white people and 2 Asian people were voted out. So no, it was not boom, boom, boom, all black people being voted out. At Drea's Tribal Council there are 10 players left, and only 3 of them are white. Do the numbers. 70% of the remaining cast at that point are people of color."
The cast of season 42: https://www.cbs.com/shows/survivor/cast/
Not sure but looks like 4 Blacks (overrepresented) and they are doing very well. 2 have been eliminated but they did make it to the jury stage so all 4 blacks have good control over the final outcome.
"So no, it was not boom, boom, boom, all black people being voted out."
Stop White-splaining.
What's an idol? Maybe I would understand the clip if I knew what she was taking from her pocket.
In reality, nobody really gets to “be themselves” unless they are fabulously wealthy or powerful. Maybe for some it’s their ethnic or racial background, for others it’s being a bit non-neurotypical, in some cases religion or faith, for some a weird hobby, and for others just an oddball way of thinking. We all wear masks. Some are thicker than others, but nobody really, truly brings their whole self to the public unless they actually have “F U money”.
If a person is literally the only dark face at a party, it’s understandable that they might focus on that element. And so they may not see all the other reasons why someone will wear a mask. But they are definitely there.
Similarly, Big Brother took a nasty turn when the black house guests from the start formed an alliance for the sole purpose of ensuring that one of them would win. As part of the plan, each of them buddied up with a white guest to form a relationship and would then sit on the block with that buddy when the alliance would vote out whitey.
Oddly, the black guy who won very likely would have won anyway. But it was a clear cut case of skin color voting.
Naturally, the lefties and various white female allies (including those voted out because of their skin color) proclaimed that it was an historic moment and perfectly justified and saluted the black players for their acting on their "lived experience".
- Krumhorn
That show is still on?
“ What's an idol? Maybe I would understand the clip if I knew what she was taking from her pocket.”
An object she found that can be used only once to be immune from an elimination vote.
Can I just vent for a moment and say how truly tired I am, of this endless self-absorption? I suppose it's just another performative act --to play the Survivor game and please the crowds-- and these people aren't "really" like this. But they purport to be really like this, and so I have to work with what I'm given, and I am, emphatically sick of it. It's cheap, it goes nowhere except into excuse-making and paranoia and resentment.
Thanks. Rewatched. Now understand the emotion behind feeling one has to use up something really valuable when $1 million at stake. But I take it there are 2 tribes so still a lot of tje 18 players in the game. Not yet in a position to "taste it"?
Only watched first season. Had a colleague who was a former contestant, but we never discussed the show.
"Everyone, I am willing to bet, has (at least in some situations) felt like they needed to hold back and (in other situations) felt free to be themselves. And it changes. Sometimes day to day sometimes minute to minute."
Sounds like The Breakfast Club, except not just with a bunch of pasty white kids.
Grammar, like math, appears too hard for certain cohorts.
The burden of ending "white supremacy" is that blacks are left to figure out what to replace it with.
I was enjoying the season until last night because it was all good people and gameplay, and no woke, social justice crap like we've been getting in recent seasons. I turned the channel as soon as Drea starting talking because I knew exactly what was coming.
Not surprisingly, last season the black players formed a BLM alliance. The alliance members were all appealing people, but I am not happy with the direction we are going. I have been watching Survivor from the beginning, but I don't get excited for it anymore. I won't hesitate to stop watching if the identity bs takes over.
Didn't I see an all black version of this show about a year ago?
Can I go back to watching "Yellowstone" now?
just some good old chum for the fishies. I ate already.
Owen said...
"Can I just vent for a moment and say how truly tired I am, of this endless self-absorption? I suppose it's just another performative act --to play the Survivor game and please the crowds-- and these people aren't "really" like this. But they purport to be really like this, and so I have to work with what I'm given, and I am, emphatically sick of it. It's cheap, it goes nowhere except into excuse-making and paranoia and resentment."
I'm with you. It seems like people need somebody elses experiences to make their own tedious lives interesting. I find it boring. TV, with exceptions, is a wasteland. My wife has lately become enamored of French TV crime dramas. I am not.
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