Stereotyping someone usually happens BEFORE they open their mouth or you know anything about them. While I don’t like the harshness of a few comments directed at yourself, to which you refer, you can’t claim that people are “stereotyping” you based on written comments when this is a blog in which written comments ARE the way we know anything about someone else. Noone is judging you on appearance or profession or whatever.. they’re judging, right or wrong, on what you say. Not the same.

>The fact is, sometimes Asians do smart things and sometimes African-Americans do athletic things. Is that life, or is that a stereotype? If it’s a stereotype, then the NBA and NFL are more a threat than this season of Survivor.

Yeah, see, that kind of comment? Shows why stereotypes are a problem.
Do you care WHY there are so many more pro athletes of certain ethnicity/background in certain sports (hint: it’s NOT the home of their ancestors, but other complex real-life socioeconomic factors). For every 1 Asian person in Mensa or 1 African-American pro baller, there are thousands (no really, thousands) of average people who get that stereotype or are expected to somehow uphold their “race” by conforming to that 0.001 percent.

Damn. I hate nausea before bedtime…

Isn’t it also possible that people will see something that challenges a preconceived notion? By starting off with the teams divided, it will be easier to see the full range of individuality contained in each group.

Re: the fear of stereotyping …

You can’t avoid stereotypes — they exist in all forms of life, not just race. Jocks are dumb. Computer people are nerds. Old people can’t learn things. Suburbanites are boring. The list goes on and on.

Heck, many of your readers have stereotyped me just by my comments.

Even if the teams weren’t divided by race, you’d still have the potential for stereotyping. What if there were integrated teams and an Asian guy helped his team solve the puzzle, or an African-American woman helped her team win a physical challenge?

The fact is, sometimes Asians do smart things and sometimes African-Americans do athletic things. Is that life, or is that a stereotype? If it’s a stereotype, then the NBA and NFL are more a threat than this season of Survivor.

I read about 15-20 reviews of the first episode from TV writers and columnists across the country. Surprisingly, most were very positive about the show and its portrayal of the four groups. Not all, of course, but the positive reviews far outweighed the negative. I’m sure someone could find something negative with those results, but to me it shows that the first episode, at least, wasn’t as inflammatory as so many said it would be.

geez, if we had some decent leadership in this country, we’d have a president who would come on tv and state plainly the major issues keeping americans behind…1) a lack of depth (illustrated by our over-interest in reality shows, tv and movie stars, and our lack of knowledge about local, state and federal issues)…manifested in short attention spans, a drop in the number of Americans going to grad schools, and the rampant materialism and waste (from energy to trash to more) 2) racism/anti-immigrant sentiment (that keeps us from feelings as a nation) 3) drugs (legal and illegal) 4) short term goals in Corporate America (all for the large stockholders and exec boards, but layoff the American worker to cost cut/it’s undermining innovation and the American worker’s standard of living and morale)…sorry to vent, but i am so sick of the world’s fascination with survivor, when most people can’t even name the secretary of state

John, that’s exactly the problem we have with this show. It sets up a situation where everyone will find a way to confirm whatever stereotypes they happen to believe in.

People who think that blacks are intellectually inferior to Asians will proclaim that they were proven right because the black team came in last in the puzzle challenge, while the Asian team came in first.

People who believe white women are sexually promiscuous will proclaim that they were proven right because the white woman made a big production of cuddling with her male teammate.

It’s a no-win situation, and it’s one that should have been avoided altogether. –CVK

Isn’t that a stereotype … that all white folks are ignorant about race? He should be more careful about how he categorizes people.

Let’s be honest. Everyone will — at some time — do something that fits the mold of a “stereotype.” And they will also do many things that DON’T fit a commonly held stereotype.

I only saw the last 45 minutes of the show but I thought it was as balanced as a goofy show like Survivor can be. For example, is it a stereotype that the Asian-American group put its puzzles together first? I don’t know … they also seemed to be very strong physically. To me, the first was a random happening … the second is very anti-stereotype.

Of course, how you view these events depends entirely on your own biases, and the bloggers cited in this post all had their minds made up long before Thursday night. They were SEARCHING for stereotypes and watching the show in a way few people do.

No matter what Mark Burnett portrays, it will be wrong in their eyes.