Reality TV is normally a choreographed escape from the harsh realities of life, but then there are episodes like this one on Survivor: Redemption Island when the show’s premise falls farther from the script and closer to the social and cultural tensions of life — in this case racial tensions between blacks and whites and the subtle manifestations of the N-word.
The whole argument started with a tub of rice infiltrated with maggots and insects. Phillip, the only African American man out of 18 initial competitors, now dwindled to 9, wanted to store his group’s uncontaminated portion of rice with the other group’s rations — to keep it from going bad. (Rice being the main source of food, if the rice goes bad then six out of the nine people remaining are left with nothing to eat.) Steve, part of the smaller group, wasn’t having it. Adamant that his argument was rational, Phillip pushed the issue to a great extent, annoying even his own group members. The dialogue goes:
[TRANSCRIPT]
Phillip: I’m a very reasonable person to deal with.
Steve: You’re not reasonable at all dude, you’re a fucking lunatic… You’re a dangerous man.
…
Phillip: That’s your perception. Anytime someone of my color gets up in one of your faces then you feel like I’m a lunatic, I’m crazy.
Other tribe members:
-He just brought in the race card.
-Did he really?
Steve: So now you’re making it a black thing?
Philip: Yeah that’s what I think this is all about right now, between you and me.
Later, Phillip rants to the tribe:
Some white folks they like to take a black man and make him crazy when he makes an argument that you don’t want to hear… Every time I make an argument with one of those guys, it’s I’m crazy. That’s N**’s crazy. Suddenly I’m crazy on a little island with a couple of dudes cause I’m telling them, hey man I got some bad rice, I want to put it in a good container.
That night, during the tribal council voting ceremony, the issue was fully hashed out:
**It’s a little long, but worth the read**
Note: Julie is part of Steve’s group. Jeff Probst is the host of the show.
Steve: I was relaxed and he was going into this racial tirade bringing the N-word up about yourself and
Jeff Probst: Whoa. What happened?
Julie: Jeff, it got ugly he started threatening Steve.
Steve: He started threatening me with tae kwon do or ju jitzu or something. He goes: “When I snap, I snap.”
Julie: So that’s when Steve goes “you’re crazy” and then the N word came out.
Jeff: Who brought up the N-word?
Julie: Phillip brought up the N-word.
Phillip: Absolutely. Steve likes to call me crazy whenever I bring a rational argument to him.
-This rice was spoiling, put it all in the same can.
-No no, you can’t do it.
-Why not?
-You’re crazy, you’re crazy, you’re crazy!
He resorts to calling me crazy. Cause he doesn’t want to say the N-word. He wants to say crazy, crazy, crazy.
Jeff: Wait, Phillip you’re saying when Steve calls you crazy, he’s actually calling you the N-word?
Phillip: You know, Richard Pryor made the most famous comedy album of all time. You know what the name of it is? That N is crazy. Cause we know that sometimes when we confront certain types of individuals that’s one way that they try to represent that.
Jeff: Phillip, I’m trying to figure out where you’re making that leap, that crazy equals the N-word. It’s very tricky when you have a white guy and a black guy talking about race and the N-word because it has such an ugly history to it.
Phillip: You know, do you know what it’s like to be a woman?
Jeff: I don’t.
Phillip: You’re right, you don’t. You don’t know what it’s like to be an African American.
Jeff: OK, Phillip —
Phillip: Let me finish. You’ve asked me a question, I’m going to go there. When I worked for the government as a federal agent, in the department that I worked in, I was the only one of sixty-seven. I can’t sum it up for you in words, but I know it when I see it. Just like a woman knows it when a guy makes an inappropriate remark. She can’t put it in words but she knows she doesn’t like it and she makes you think about it. And I’ve seen it many times in my life, and that’s what he does.
Jeff: Let me use your same logic on you. You’re saying I’m not black so I don’t know. How do you know what he means when he says “crazy?” That’s what I’m trying to get at. There’s a jump in logic that I need the gap filled in.
Phillip: Well let me help you with it. When my father and I moved to upstate New York in 1968, he and I went to the grocery store together. And the man standing behind the counter said to my father:
-What can I do for you boy?
-[looks behind his shoulder] You talking to me?
-Yeah I’m talking to you. What can I do for you boy?
No, he didn’t use the N-word but in a very quick second, he took my father down to a very low level. It’s another way of getting around that.
Steve: I just want to say–
Phillip: You can say whatever you want to say when I’m finished.
Steve: I played thirteen years in the NFL, the last seven years with the Los Angeles Raiders where one-fifth of the team was white. There’s no line of black and white in my heart.
Jeff: Phillip, so I’m starting to get some clarity. If Steve had said, “Phillip I don’t know that’s a crazy argument it doesn’t really make any sense to me.” You would say that’s just a guy saying he doesn’t like my thought process.
[Phillip nods]
Jeff: When somebody says you’re crazy, it’s almost bringing up every ugly association that you can think of in one word. So tell me if this is right so far. There’s been a big debate brewing about living together, it culminated with the rice and you threw an idea out that you felt was reasonable. Steve said, “I don’t know, let’s figure it out, let’s talk about it.” And then as the argument about the rice continued, Steve made a comment that said, “I don’t like it. You’re crazy.” At that point, you equated that with “you’re calling me the N-word” and now we have a whole new world we’re dealing with.
Phillip: Absolutely.
Jeff: OK, so now I’m caught up. Two people from different worlds had an argument. You took it one way. Nobody can question the way you took it, and it’s based on your experiences and those of people before you. Nobody knows Steve’s intentions other than Steve right now, because nobody here really knows Steve. We don’t have any background on Steve. It’s quite possible both of you are telling the truth. That that felt very much like the N-word and he absolutely didn’t mean it that way. Is that a fair assessment?
Collective nods from the cast members.
[END TRANSCRIPT]
It’s hard to judge whether either argument is valid based on just a short transcript and without the context of the entire episode or the larger season. Not to mention CBS editing choices in piecing together for us what it deems to be “good TV.” No doubt what was left out would give a fuller picture of the whole story.
Yet still I’m not a big fan of Jeff making Phillip defend his opinion. Phillip being the only black man out of 18 participants during the season, he is alone in his argument. He is the outsider on a show full of people unlike him. Yes, he did sign up for it, but is it his responsibility to explain what it’s like to grow up and work as a black man to his eight tribe mates and millions of viewers? Steve’s one-fifth of my team was white (translation: I’ve showered with 80% “minorities” so many of my best friends are non-white) argument also wasn’t too convincing. Just saying, we’ve heard it before and it’s not the best defense he could put up against Phillip’s accusation.
What do you think: is ‘crazy’ rightly equated with the N-word or is Phillip jumping to false conclusions?
I am not a fan of Survivor but, what is this? What I don’t understand is that, why is the Jeff guy not asking Steve anything? Does he feel because he’s white he can speak for Steve against the black man? Steve has to explain why he called Phillip crazy. It doesn’t matter whether or not what he meant the n-word, he still needs to explain why you would say someone is Crazy why you are just having a perfectly lucid conversation.
This is complicated. Phillip is obviously a more complicated and sophisticated person on the whole show. You can tell. His backgrounds spans a whole lot. So I think there’s a bit of a discord there, ‘ In the Country of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is King’.
Certainly, what he knows and what he feels, none of them can ever imagine.
Good pts. The interrogation is definitely one-sided and I agree that no amount of explaining could help them understand where he is coming from.
I applaud Phillip for how he handled the situation, not once losing his temper and still hanging around a show like that. He brings up valid points and backs it up with evidence to explain his opinion. It takes courage to stand up to a united front like that cause it does seem like Jeff and Julie are siding with Steve on this one.
The situation was definitely tense, I must say. I didn’t think of happenings like this on Survivor. It did leave a bad taste in my mouth though. I respect Phillip, his argument and logic were simply candid and indefatigable. And I detest the attitude of the woman who hid Phillip’s pants. Who does that? If anything at all, she is Crazy!