First, I absolutely loved Ben’s reasoning about him being the only person who could effectively start a fire. Then, even taking it further by saying how the women shouldn’t even attempt it due their lack of strength and small hands. That was TV gold. Anyway, I’m glad he’s gone.
Black Russell choosing the comfort over the function probably wasn’t the best idea. There was what, three pillows, a couple of towels, a couple of mats, and one hammock for ten people? He’s got to be smarter than that. It seems like the women are all going to be monopolizing that stuff leaving the men with nothing.
It’s nice to see that certain people are starting to see through Russell’s bullshit, or at the very least, not just blindly agree to everything he says. Looks like next week Jaison stands his ground with him. Should be interesting. So far, I like what I see from Jaison.
I couldn’t believe the yellow team called Jeff over to look at their puzzle, when there were still 2 blue pieces next to each other. This wasn’t one of those “memorize and recreate a pattern” puzzles where you have no way of knowing if you’re right short of having Jeff check it - all you had to do was look at the 16 exposed 2ftx2ft squares and notice there were still 2 blues next to each other! If they can’t get past that level of incompetence, they’ll be showing up at TC again and again.
I’m really getting to like Jaison. I very much enjoyed watching him hold his own verbally against both Evil Russell and later Judah Ben Racist. I do wonder if his using an ultimatum (“he goes, or I go” or words to that effect) was unwise, and will be held over his head later. It does seem that he’s had enough of being in the background and getting-along to go-along, which may be very interesting.
OTOH, that whole tribe is doomed unless the producers give the tribes a do-over, split everyone evenly (& randomly) and start over. Whoever gets voted off Foa Foa before that mixup probably doesn’t affect the end of the game at all.
I agree that Good Russell is an idiot, as he’s shown at least once per episode. He seems like a nice enough fellow, but maybe he should delegate some of his decision-making.
Yeah. Mick over on Foa Foa has been smart enough to give the “vote” in the first episode about as much weight as it deserves, and has been making no overt leadership moves that we’ve seen. Smart.
Good Russell, OTOH, has apparently taken his “mandate” to heart and forgotten that just because something’s offered to you, you don’t have to take it (insert James’s “apple” metaphor here).
I was pleasantly surprised that Jaison didn’t pussy-foot around the issue, but instead flat-out called Ben a racist.
I’m not sure how Russell sees his strategy playing out. He’s kinda like the Joker…just wants to see the world burn. Everytime they lose a challenge and one of his “enemies” gets booted at TC, I can see him saying “mwaahaahaaa…my plan is working to perfection.” and I’m not sure just what that plan is.
Personally, I’d like it if they sent a couple of Galu folks – Jasmin and Shambo, specifically – over to Foa Foa and then let them Ulong themselves, Palau-style.
Is the term “ghetto trash” as racially charged as Jaison made it out to be? Do others agree?
I didn’t think much of it last week when Ben and Yasmin were getting into it but Jaison evidently sees it differently.
“ghetto” is commonly used to indicate inferiority as in the 'ghetto version of -Fill-in-the-Blank and ‘white trash’ is bandied about without a second glance.
Ghetto trash? For me it = shrug
Also good thing Russell came around and voted for Ben. It was the smart move and hopefully he’ll acknowledge that he isn’t pulling every string, calling every shot. Hubris is a game-killer on this show.
I agree with you. I don’t see it as a racially charged term and I think Jaison is being hypersensitive about race. But he’s a Stanford lawyer, what else would you expect?
I don’t deny that Ben is probably at least a bit racist, but it’s more that he’s just an asshole.
I disagree. Where I grew up, I heard this sort of talk from people, and it was code for the n-word. I don’t remember all the euphemisms, and I’m not going to parse everything Ben said to tease out what was and what wasn’t a racial comment, but I have no doubt where Ben was coming from; I’ve had acquaintances like him, and when they were sure they were in a friendly group, they said much worse things. “Go back where you came from,” from that same conversation, doesn’t mean “go home”, it means “go back to africa”.
And “Nigger rigged” has been widely used as a replacement for “jury rigged”. Does that make it inoffensive?
I can’t think of a use of “ghetto trash” that *isn’t *racially charged. (And if you’ve been using it thinking it’s okay, you should probably cut it out.)
See, I think that’s being oversensitive. As Ben pointed out, there are white people in the “ghetto” (i.e. the rundown part of town) and some of them are trashy, ergo “ghetto trash”.
BUT! That’s not the way Ben was using it when he was talking to Jasmine and he knows it. He was being a racist jackass and no amount of rationalizing and gotcha yas will change that.
The only time I’ve heard the term “ghetto” used in relation to white people was in history class.
I can’t believe people are trying to excuse this. It is blatantly obvious that the term is a racially charged one. It never would have been used if the woman were white.