Insensitivity on a reality show?
Who would have thought?
Last night, one of the challenges on The Amazing Race led the participants to the "Hanoi Hilton"--where Vietnam POWs were held and tortured. And it really struck me as wrong that the teams were running around the place, searching frantically for their clue, when it was a place of such misery for so many people.
The Cho Bros. actually did take some time to pay their respects, as it were. And I don't blame the other teams for not doing so--they were racing, after all. But the whole situation just left me feeling a little unsettled, and I wondered why the challenge couldn't have just been in another place. I know that in the past, the Race has informed teams when they couldn't run or shout in a particular place (usually because it has religious significance). I can understand not wanting to do that here, but if that were the case, couldn't they have just skipped it all together?
Did anyone else feel unsettled when watching this last night?
Labels: Amazing Race, Television
posted by Red Fraggle @ 3:34 PM
1 Comments:
I thought it was weird. I do remember watching the task in Senegal and totally bawling because you could see that the teams were really touched by it. Except the odious Kendra and Freddy.
And didn't they go to Robbin Island once too? I don't recall thinking that that was forced either.
I think that what made it weird is that it was essentially a memorial to the bad stuff that the Vietnamese did to Americans. It made it a bit awkward because you don't really want to dwell on what assholes they were.
I personally am still smarting from the torture legislation that was passed last week, so I couldn't help thinking that we got some of our ideas for how to torture, I mean "interrogate," detainees from the Viet Cong. Doesn't that make you proud to be an American?
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