In 1965, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York wrote a treatise about the condition of the two Americas (titled: “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action“). His piece, which was a rather sobering critique of the state of the Black family, Black America and greater America itself, was viewed as quite controversial in many circles.

In his article, Moynihan not only described the continuing deterioration of Black America, but he also outlined how America was increasingly divided along racial and income lines. He predicted that without significant and continued remedy and intervention, America was tracking on what would eventually be an irreversible path. The nation was destined to become a modern version of a caste society, where one group – largely Whites, had steady access to the American dream, while another – largely Blacks, lingered hopelessly in a state of permanent disenfranchisement.

Senator Moynihan’s thought provoking piece was written during a pivotal point in the history of this nation. It was a time when the two Americas were so clear, since the America of the 1960’s was fundamentally a nation of Black Versus White. Certainly, there were other ethnic groups, but Blacks were estimated to represent more than 90% of the non-White population, and hence the nation’s future seemed integrally linked to the ability of the two most visible and populous groups to live together in peace.

Perhaps even more importantly though, Moynihan and others also knew that the world was watching America - the world’s great melting pot. It was well understood by many even in Moynihan’s day that racial divisiveness in America would not only impede Blacks, but would eventually also have a profound and permanent impact on the nation and its position in the world.

Fast forward to the New Millennium, where racial issues in America are no longer binary, and where racial animus can be advanced with the lighting speed of broadband. We live in time where far too many Americans look to the “reality” of TV to determine our own reality. In this high-tech era, we not only face a more complicated stream of information, but we also face a far more complex set of issues with regard to our racial pluralism. In this century, racial issues run the gamut, from Black-White, to White-Brown, Black-Brown, Black-Yellow, and likely every shade in between.

Unfortunately, many of Senator Moynihan’s admonishments were not heeded by the African American community, or by America itself. Today, we still face many of the same issues that Senator Moynihan so poignantly painted with regard to the need for Americans to collaborate in an effort to solve the country’s collective racial problems. In fact, given the passage of four decades, the stakes are even higher today, and arguably as never before America’s future is at risk.

It is with this backdrop that we find CBS launching a new version of its show “Survivor” in the fall titled, “Survivor: Cook Islands”. In this series, apparently 4 groups consisting of a total of 20 contestants will be divided into groups of 5 by race. These groups will then be pitted against each other in an ultimate survival competition.

Host of the Survivor show Jeff Probst, said the network was rightly worried the racial divide might offend viewers:

“It’s very risky because you’re bringing up a topic that is a hot button,” Probst told ASAP, the Associated Press service for younger readers. “There’s a history of segregation you can’t ignore. It is part of our history.”

Risky, yes. Prudent, no. Because unfortunately, what Survivor is doing has implications that are far more serious than CBS’ fall ratings. The show is turning the racial divisions of America into a prime time entertainment event. They have encroached upon the furthest limits of opportunism by creating a show that is sanctioned by a major network, wherein one race can now root against another from the comfort of their living rooms.

Such a move by a major network does not simply benignly acknowledge our nation’s history of abhorrent segregation, instead it actually shamelessly and recklessly promotes it. This show plays into the sickness that threatens to destroy our great nation. As such, the network’s decision is symbolic of both the state of America today - in that we have an appetite for this type of divisiveness, and also of the path that we are now on – in that what it depicts will in the end be the very cause of our nation’s demise.

The truth is that this nation’s greatest strength continues to lie in her diversity. This is not new, as it has always been so. Over the past two centuries, our great gains have come as a result of inclusion and diversity - whether from immigration, or from policies promoting multiculturalism. And while different races continue to contribute to different areas and at different levels of the economic spectrum, no one ethnic group has contributed disproportionately - particularly when the realities of the relative disparities in their relative starting positions are taken into consideration.

The hard fact is that today we live in an increasingly unforgiving global economy. There is an emerging New Millennium reality which will require the people of this great nation to unite as never before if we are to continue to thrive. Our future lies in our ability to avoid pitting one of our groups against the other, as this will be to the detriment of us all.

This is not Pollyannaish. It is grounded in the pragmatic reality that America is growing increasingly diverse. We are a nation where a once distinct minority of Blacks will rapidly emerge in the 21st Century as a multicultural minority-majority of African Americans, Latinos and Asians.

Simultaneously with the changes inside America, the world’s power paradigm is rapidly shifting. People of color are now the world’s clear majority, and that formidable strength will either be turned against an America that is bent on divisiveness, or will instead ultimately follow an America that is fully committed to embracing diversity and inclusion.

We must emerge as the global leader committed to the science of running a premier, diverse nation. Our future is contingent upon this emergence. As such, in this Century, equal access to the American dream is no longer an altruistic nicety, it is instead a necessity. Without it, our nation’s middle class evaporates, our global leadership deteriorates, and all races and groups of Americans will pay the heaviest price conceivable.

All of this may seemingly have little to do with a reality show that plans to pit one race against another, since it is after all, only entertainment. But in that this entertainment is reflective of a growing trend of divisiveness that is manifesting itself in so many ways across America, and in that it is deemed “acceptable” enough to move to prime time, it is indeed a perilous sign.

Quite ironically, the show’s host Probst goes on to say that the “Survivor” producers simply wanted to bring more ethnic diversity to the competition:

“The truth is 80 percent of the people that apply are white,” he said. “And television, in general, is white. So all these criticisms were valid.”

Yet whether advanced under the cynical guise of inclusion or not, such “entertainment” does nothing but widen racial schisms, and worse, it threatens the world’s perception of this great nation no less than the racially divisive approaches of past centuries in this nation and others. In fact, perhaps some one should alert them to the historical “reality” that the problem of too few minorities and representatives of other cultures in the Roman stadiums was never solved by making them the food of the lions.