Q&A: The Remarks of a Participant on the Show 'Survivor' (in Israel)
The Remarks of a Participant on the Show 'Survivor' (in Israel)
Question
This week a media storm erupted around remarks made by one of the participants on the show (in the episode aired this week), which were labeled racist. I don’t follow the show, so I only saw the specific segment that caused the uproar (it’s possible I missed the trigger for it, whether it was aired or not).
I think the remarks were expressed in an extreme way, but still it seems they came more from a place of pain than from provocation, though there was still some element of defiance.
Bottom line: although not to the degree that was presented there, sometimes I identify with his general feeling. To be clear, this is not necessarily with people of one particular ethnic background. Still, it seems that through “personal judgment” one can usually know something about a person’s character based on his background.
For example, I have a hard time with conversations that strike me as shallow. I have a hard time with the lack of rationality that sometimes exists.
And maybe these things can be classified statistically, if they can be quantified, by ethnic background, and one would see that among people of a certain background there is a higher probability of encountering “those things.”
Maybe like the army’s quality score, though I don’t know whether a certain background affects the score.
One person tends to be colder and more intellectual, and another tends toward warmth and emotion. And they do not always manage to understand one another, let alone connect with one another.
I am of course not racist, if the text suggests otherwise. As a side point, I myself belong to the same background that he attacked.
The question is whether not connecting to a certain culture necessarily indicates racism. What is the difference, really, between racism and not connecting to a certain “style” that is expressed more strongly among people of a certain background? And in fact, what is the difference between his remarks and Yaron London’s remarks about the Meron disaster?
Thank you.
Answer
I have written here more than once about racism, and in my next column I plan to return to the topic and discuss it again, and I hope your question will be answered there.
Briefly, I would say that facts, even if they are incorrect, are not racism, and not feeling connected to a community or ethnic background is not racism but personal taste.
I did not hear those remarks, nor did I hear Yaron London’s remarks.
Discussion on Answer
The fact that someone labels himself that way does not mean he actually is. It is possible that he does not understand what racism is.
The matter will be clarified in the planned column.
Thanks again.
I would add that I understood that the participant explicitly labeled himself a “racist.”
You previously addressed Yaron London’s remarks about the Meron disaster.
If by saying that you did not hear Yaron London’s remarks about the Meron disaster you meant that he did not speak in a racist way toward the Haredi public, that is true.
Let me clarify: although London’s remarks referred to a sector as a collective, and not to ethnic background as a collective, it still was a generalization, in a context where in my view the collective should not affect one’s judgment.
That is, assuming that the character of the individual in a group is defined by the majority, it seems there is no real difference, again aside from the fact that one refers to ethnic background and the other to sector, between the content of London’s remarks and the content of the Survivor participant’s remarks, assuming of course that the majority really does tend toward the point being examined.
Perhaps the difference is in the emotional sense surrounding the discourse of “racism,” and in the fact that ethnic background is not a matter of choice while belonging to a sector is. And then whoever chooses to belong to a sector should take the consequences into account. But still, by what standard do we determine who belongs to a sector—by dress? And in any case there is a difficulty in including small children as part of a group, since they more likely did not choose it, unlike adults. This is not hinting at anything.
In any case, there is no need for a response to this thread, since you are planning to discuss the topic of racism anyway.
It was important to me just to add and clarify details to the question.
Of course, everything written here is according to my understanding. I hope I was not mistaken in some of what I wrote.