While I was working on the images from last weekend’s jaunt to Santa Fe, Aimee kept me company by watching the Amazing Race on CBS. [Aside: Aimee and I secretly long to be contestants on the show. We feel, of course, superior to everyone who’s been on and think that we could easily trounce anyone who stood in our way.]
The teams on this season of the Amazing Race are made up of families. A couple teams are comprised of the parents and their two young children, one is made up of four sisters, another consists of a dad and his three sons-in-law, and the list goes on.
There was one team in particular that caught my attention last night. A father, mother, and their 11 and 8-year-old sons came from Woodbridge, Virginia to compete. They compete in Tae Kwon Do tournaments. Together. The kids are funny, the mom is nice and the dad is loving and encouraging to them all. This family is awesome.
Unfortunately for CBS, they’re also African-American.
And their last name is Black.
They’re the black Black family.
Now, I am by no means racist. I honestly believe that skin color has absolutely nothing to do with the measure of a human being. But this was incredibly funny to me. I could not stop laughing every time the voiceover announced the status of the Black family. And every time the announcer addressed them, he started with, “Black family…” There are bloggers coming out and saying that this was a very racist move for CBS. I think that it’s unfortunate that people want to make CBS the bad guy for putting a black family on the show with a last name like Black, but I’d say that giving an incredible family the opportunity to win a million dollars is a pretty nice move whether that family is black, yellow, green or red.
It was pretty funny, though. I hope that next week they start referring to all the teams with generalizations. Like the angry Italian family. Or the Blond sisters. Or the we’re - all - competing - for - the - approval - of - our - father - in - law - and - we’ll - kill - each - other - to - get - it squad.
[Another aside: The Black Family double entendre was funny, but the funniest moment in the show came when one of the brothers on the three-adult-brothers-and-their-adult-sister team was trying to impress the team of blond sisters. He had earlier received a quartet of smiles from them after a word of encouragement. As his team passed theirs on another stage, he wished them luck and then later, farther down the road and out of earshot, yelled out, “It’s all about the bi’s and the tri’s for the ladies!”
Maybe you had to be there.]
The teams on this season of the Amazing Race are made up of families. A couple teams are comprised of the parents and their two young children, one is made up of four sisters, another consists of a dad and his three sons-in-law, and the list goes on.
There was one team in particular that caught my attention last night. A father, mother, and their 11 and 8-year-old sons came from Woodbridge, Virginia to compete. They compete in Tae Kwon Do tournaments. Together. The kids are funny, the mom is nice and the dad is loving and encouraging to them all. This family is awesome.
Unfortunately for CBS, they’re also African-American.
And their last name is Black.
They’re the black Black family.
Now, I am by no means racist. I honestly believe that skin color has absolutely nothing to do with the measure of a human being. But this was incredibly funny to me. I could not stop laughing every time the voiceover announced the status of the Black family. And every time the announcer addressed them, he started with, “Black family…” There are bloggers coming out and saying that this was a very racist move for CBS. I think that it’s unfortunate that people want to make CBS the bad guy for putting a black family on the show with a last name like Black, but I’d say that giving an incredible family the opportunity to win a million dollars is a pretty nice move whether that family is black, yellow, green or red.
It was pretty funny, though. I hope that next week they start referring to all the teams with generalizations. Like the angry Italian family. Or the Blond sisters. Or the we’re - all - competing - for - the - approval - of - our - father - in - law - and - we’ll - kill - each - other - to - get - it squad.
[Another aside: The Black Family double entendre was funny, but the funniest moment in the show came when one of the brothers on the three-adult-brothers-and-their-adult-sister team was trying to impress the team of blond sisters. He had earlier received a quartet of smiles from them after a word of encouragement. As his team passed theirs on another stage, he wished them luck and then later, farther down the road and out of earshot, yelled out, “It’s all about the bi’s and the tri’s for the ladies!”
Maybe you had to be there.]
We watched this episode last night too. I wanted to see the Black family go much further than they did. They seemed like a nice family. You could see how heartbroken the sons were. But then again, they were very fortunate to be in a televised competition that many people could only dream about! Maybe we will see you and your partner on the next season? :)
I wanted to see them go further, too. My motives were obviously less than pure, though. I was looking forward to laughing some more. Oh well. It would have become stale eventually. But it would have been nice to see such a great, supportive family get to play a little longer.
Hey Rob, I thought you might like this article (It's not related to your last post):
http://outside.away.com/outside/features/200509/bradford-washburn-1.html