Survivor: Cook Islands Premiere

Survivor: Cook Islands, the 13th installment of the biggest reality TV series in the world, stirred up quite a lot of controversy before even the first episode aired. Why? Mark Burnett and crew decided to add a new twist to the series - they divided the tribes up by race. Many people applauded this decision because, let's face it, Survivor has been basically a Caucasian game from the get-go. Each season, minorities have been in well, the minority.

Many others cried foul. How can they divide people up by race? Isn't this just a new brand of segregation? Why pit the races against each other? You're just asking for trouble.

Bull!

As Sundra from the Manihiki (African American) tribe said last night, "When it comes to surviving, it's a human effort!" Amen to that.

In fact, division by ethnicity may not benefit the tribes as we've already seen some serious divisions within each group. In Puka Puka (Asian), the younger members of the tribe think that Cao Boi, who lived through the Vietnam War in Vietnam, was a bit out there. When he tried to help the buff Brad get rid of his headache by using a technique to draw out the "bad wind", the rest of Cao Boi's tribe mates basically laughed him off. However, Cao Boi, the nail salon manager, did get rid of the headache!

In the Hispanic tribe (Aitutaki), Billy, whose parents fled the Dominican Republic, feels that his team has a distinct advantage. His reasoning is that Latinos are used to 'tropical regions' and should kick butt. Of course, Billy is not the best spokesperson for his team. He thinks he's more capable than he is. Other team members are a bit ticked off at him such as Ozzy, the handsome waiter who could emerge as a leader if he feels it would be to his advantage. Billy is also not pulling his considerable weight at camp, which, according to scenes from next week's episode, proves to be a problem.

But, that's not really an issue of race, now is it!?!

For example, the Manihiki had some serious problems to deal with. First and foremost, this tribe further divided itself along gender lines with Nate and Sekou separating from the women. They even went so far as to make the decision of who went to Exile Island after the immunity challenge without consulting the women. Big mistake, guys! This, along with Sekou's desire to take excessive rest breaks and his belief that he's a better 'survivor' than others because he's a big strong man were all contributing factors to his getting voted out first last night.

Oh yes! Race had nothing to do with it. Race also had nothing to do with Manihiki's loss in the challenge. Oh no! Manihiki lost because they - as a tribe - had not come together. We've seen this happen in every season of Survivor, no matter how they split the tribes up. A tribe that doesn't work well together doesn't win challenges together no matter whether they're made up of women, men, the same race or whatever other dividing factor the producers can come up with!

Finally, the Caucasian tribe, Rarotonga, had some issues of their own. We have the hot guy who likes a hot girl. They cuddle. They flirt. Hmm? Where have we seen this before? I can't imagine. It's not as if this is a recurrent Survivor theme, now is it? We also have the older guy, Jonathan, the writer, who seems to have some trouble relating to the younger kids. He got really mad at Jessica, the alternative chick who doesn't fit in anywhere - think Angie from Palau with a little less edge, when she inadvertently released the chickens into the wild. It was a terrible mistake, but a mistake nonetheless.

Personally - and I know this opinion is going to be unpopular, but oh well, I think we're making way too much of the racial divisions. The one thing last night's episode proved is that people are divided by much more than race or ethnicity. People in a group naturally go through conflicts, it seems. It's how they work on resolving those issues that brings them together. It's not the color of their skin, their shared heritage or any of those other factors. Beneath it all, people are people. What divides us is within us, not on the outside.

Sure, it remains to be seen if Survivor: Cook Islands is a failed social experiment or not. It remains to be seen if race will play a bigger factor later on. I don't think so. I am glad that the NAACP, which has expressed displeasure on this division, waited to reserve judgment on the season until they saw it. This shows that cooler heads do prevail sometimes in our society.

So, what do you think about Survivor: Cook Islands? Did you even watch? Discuss it with us HERE. Yup! We're already talking about it! Why aren't you?

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