Survivor Goes Jim Crow

Okay, so everyone knows Survivor is trying to maintain its ratings by creating race-based tribes. That Survivor -- or any reality show -- would attempt the shocking is, well, hardly shocking. I've ignored this story so far for two reasons. First, other stuff has taken a back seat to the ProTour lately. It has been an interesting year and I find myself warming to the whole ProTour concept. Second, I couldn't care less what Survivor does. Nevertheless, despite my non-interest, I happened to click through a Drudge link, where I was confronted with this abject nutjobbery:

[Producer Mark] Burnett claims dividing the four teams on SURVIVOR: COOK ISLANDS according to race eliminates any tension between the groups and thus avoids racism.

Hmmm. Why didn't anyone think of that before? We could eliminate racial tension simply by segregating -- the word could not be more apt -- the races. What a brilliant idea . . . You say what? Tried before? Nooooo. But this is different. Burnett has vowed strictly to enforce a policy of seperate but equal in all respects. Buffoon.