Jim Crow is alive and well at CBS. The network has announced that contestants in the next “Survivor” will be divided into ethnic “tribes” including a black team, a white team, a Hispanic team, and an Asian team.
Defenders of the change argue that it will stimulate a “conversation on race.” No doubt. This scenario certainly raises some intriguing questions to start off this conversation. What will be done about people of mixed black and white ancestry? Will the produc- ers of “Survivor” assign them to the black team on the basis of the”one-drop” rule as used in the Homer Plessy case of 1896? Will the segregation be extend- ed to separate drinking fountains and restrooms? Will contestants who quit be considered “traitors to their races?”