People do tend to hang out in their own ethnic groups socially. Not because of exclusion or hatred of others, it's just quite normal. Where I come from, you go to Santa Monica and certain pubs, it's nearly all English people. You go to Fairfax Boulevard in Los Angeles, it's all Ethiopian people. Go a little further up and it's Orthodox Jews. I mean, people do cluster in areas.

That's Mark Burnett, overlord of this season's ethnically heterodox Survivor: Race War. As usual, the show's diversity is celebrated while its racial separation tactic remains unexplained (or at least ujustified). Unless Burnett is implying that Survivor is just replicating the outside world's existing people-clusters, sort of like his own little Model UN. For an even more subtle treatment, be sure sure to check TMZ's reader poll on which ethnic group will prevail in various challenges (calculus, watermelon eating). Nice to see someone cutting right to the racism-humor chase for once.

The Slug Talks to Mark Burnett [Slug]
[Photo: Getty Images]

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