Download Sociological Analysis of Male African

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Sociological Analysis of African-American Male Characteristics in
Competitive Reality Television
William Craig Butler
Ball State University
TCOM 204
Running head: Sociological Analysis of Male African-American Characteristics in
Competitive Reality Television
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Abstract
Sociological analysis of African-American male characteristics was used while observing
competitive reality television shows. Using research on characteristics of competition and
artifact observation, the stereotype of African-Americans as more physically competitive
was confirmed. Three different African-American males each from different reality
televisions shows were observed for physical and mental characteristics for the entire
season of the show. Physical characteristics were very obvious based on racial
discrimination and stereotypical expectations. Analysis of mental competition like lying
and cheating showed less strength when compared to other ethnic groups in the
competitions.
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Sociological Analysis of Male African-American Characteristics in
Competitive Reality Television
“The relevant framework is not one of morality but of survival. At every level,
from brute camouflage to poetic vision, the linguistic capacity to conceal, misinform,
leave ambiguous…is indispensable to the equilibrium of human consciousness and to the
development of man in society” (Teven, 2004, pg.52). According to this quote, conflict
and competition are necessities of life. In society today, most people are competing for
careers, food, or fame and recognition. As a form of entertainment, the broadcasting
community has brought the excitement of competition right into our family rooms. With
the concept of competitive reality television, anyone who wants to see the raw nature of
conflict can do so and not have to deal with the consequences. The purpose of this paper
is to identify the characteristics of African-American males in competitive situations on
reality television. When someone decides to engage in competition, they will use
specific physical characteristics and mental traits to fight their way to the top and win.
This paper first tells us what these characteristics are; and secondly, how they help or
hinder the competition for African-American males. To answer this question, I watched
and analyzed an African-American male in each of the following reality television shows:
Survivor: Palau (Burnett, 2006), Celebrity Mole Hawaii (Stone, 2003), and Big Brother 3
(Mol, 2003).
Survivor: Palau (Burnett, 2006) is the tenth season in the CBS network Survivor
series. This show is filmed in the Palau Islands where twenty competitors face off for the
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chance to win $1 million. Two teams compete against each other for rewards like food,
tools, clothes, and immunity which keeps them from being voted off the island. The
biggest competition, of course, is the personal competition for the million dollar grand
prize. Survivor: Palau (Burnett, 2006) is the most physical competition since the
contestants actually have to survive on and island by themselves. Ibrehem Rahman is the
African-American male analyzed from this series and he made it through seven episodes
before he was voted off the island.
Celebrity Mole Hawaii (Stone, 2003) is an ABC network reality television show
that uses celebrities instead of regular people for competition. The concept behind this
competition is to cooperatively compete together to win up to 250,000 dollars while
trying to find out which person is trying to keep everyone else from winning the most
money possible, who is called the “Mole”. After each episode, the cast takes a quiz to try
and determine who the “Mole” is and the person with the lowest score is eliminated from
the game. Celebrity Mole Hawaii (Stone, 2003) is a moderate physical game, but it also
involves a lot of mental competition. The African-American male celebrity examined is
Michael Boatman and he made it through four out of six episodes before being
eliminated.
The final competitive reality television show scrutinized is Big Brother 3(Mol,
2003), aired on the CBS network. This show locks twelve contestants into a house for
three months and lets them compete for 500,000 dollars while every little action is
watched my cameras everywhere in the house. These competitors are heavily involved in
the mental concept of competition except for the food, reward, and immunity
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competition. Marcellas Reynolds, who made it through 27 episodes before being evicted,
is the African-American male that we will analyze in Big Brother 3(Mol, 2003).
After analyzing the African-American males in Survivor: Palau (Burnett, 2006),
Celebrity Mole Hawaii (Stone, 2003), and Big Brother 3(Mol, 2003), specific
characteristics showed up for each of the individuals. Why African-American males
though? African-American males are a perfect ethnic group for examination because
they statistically “ perform better, relative to white athletes, in sports activities that are
reactive in nature, but no in sports activities that are self-paced in nature” (Jones &
Hochner, 1973, pg. 86). In episode four of Survivor: Palau (Burnett, 2006), Ibrehem
showed his reactive strength in a sumo wrestling match. At the sound of the whistle, he
immediately tossed his rival off the platform like he weighed nothing. Michael Boatman
showed the same reactionary speed in episode one of Celebrity Mole Hawaii (Stone,
2003) during the waterfall competition. He blazed through the competition and filled the
bucket with water lightning-fast. On the opposite hand, in episode two of Survivor: Palau
(Burnett, 2006), episode two of Celebrity Mole Hawaii (Stone, 2003), and almost every
episode of Big Brother 3(Mol, 2003) every African-American male fails the self-paced
competitions. These competitions ranged from swinging sand bags on Survivor: Palau
(Burnett, 2006) to balancing a book on a person’s head in Big Brother 3(Mol, 2003).
Another reason the African-American male is an excellent group is because they
are portrayed as having “superiority explained by the combinations of physical
endowment and racial discrimination where the latter produces greater selectivity of
black performers motivating them to succeed” (Jones & Hochner, 1973, pg. 94). These
attributes were shown in each show by the strength Ibrehem displayed in challenges,
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Michael’s ability to quickly fill buckets and not drop them, and by Marcellas displaying
amazing quick speed in a racing competition.
A second aspect of competition is the type of tactics a man will choose to employ
during the game. According to David P. Barash, author of The Survival Game, there are
“three distinct kinds of males: big, medium, and small, with no intermediate forms. This
in itself suggests that the individuals represent distinct genetic strategies” (Barash, 2003,
pg. 240). Each person chosen for this research can be represented by this model. The big
and strong male is Ibrehem. The medium male is Michael. The small male is Marcellas.
This is easy to see because Ibrehem might have been smart, but he chooses to only exert
his physical prowess. Michael was pretty athletic, but he mixed those abilities with his
intelligence to maximize his competitive ability. Finally, Marcellas is the small male
because he is small. Marcellas could run; but besides running ability, he could only use
his knowledge of sociology to make his way so far through the game.
Besides physical tactics, each African-American male also displayed classic types
of mental strategies. The person who personifies “The Quiet One” is a person who is
always in the background, but never steps to the front to force an item or topic and
typically is labeled as “flying below the radar” (Teven, 2004, pg.55). Even though he is
extremely physical, Ibrehem almost never talks during his time on Palau. He personifies
“The Quiet One” because you almost never hear a complaint about him until he messes
up and gets noticed. Michael and Marcellas used the Machiavellian theory to compete.
The Machiavellian theory says that people most often act selfish, cold, or calculating
towards other humans to decide how to achieve the best result (Barash, 2003, pg. 4).
Marcellas and Michael both sat back and watched everyone to pick out who they thought
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was the biggest threat and then decided how to exploit their plans toward that person they
perceived as a problem.
During actual competition, the intensity at which African-Americans can compete
is directly related to how they use socialized and power motives (Jones & Hochner,
1973). Ibrehem shows us in episode three of Survivor: Palau (Burnett, 2006) that bad
communication kept him from winning an immunity challenge. He was very physically
able; but since he did not ask for someone to take off some of his weight that he added,
he got tired. Marcellas uses his social skills during the whole game to take care of the
people he does not like. Michael Boatman showed his superiority by properly
communicating and physically filling the buckets during the waterfall challenge. Another
way to make these men better competitors is physically competing to arouse the
competitive instinct to get rid of nervous energy that could take away from their
performance (Seashore, 1899). Increasing the importance of rank in the competition will
cause the intensity of the conflict to sky-rocket (Garcia et al, 2006). The physical
presence of the sumo competitors in episode four in Survivor: Palau (Burnett, 2006)
really caused Ibrehem to display the biggest burst of power he ever displays during the
series. In Big Brother 3(Mol, 2003), episode 22 is a very interesting spot where Marcellas
changes from a nice friend into a mean competitor. He knows he is getting closer to the
end and this causes him to back-stab and cause a lot more conflict.
The other half of competition is completely a mental game. Competitive reality
television displays the mental strategies of “manipulation, deception, and betrayal as
justifiable means to a superlative end” (Teven, 2004, pg.52). Marcellas showed us in Big
Brother 3(Mol, 2003) that by sharing very personal stories to make people like him and
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telling people what they wanted to hear he could position himself for a chance to win.
Ibrehem and Michael both showed their own mental prowess in their own manner. Since
Ibrehem was a very physical man, he would point out what people were not doing around
their camp to direct the attention away from his shortcomings. This strategy, called
obstruction, can be in the form of hiding information, spying on other competitors, or
highlighting people’s weaknesses to everyone else (Johnson et al, 2006). Marcellas also
showed these abilities by exposing many of the house guests and getting them evicted.
Being ruthless and selfish to ruin other competitors’ chances of winning was also a
mental display of competition. This strategy is described as a “defensive pattern of
behavior that may anger competitors and cause them to retaliate” (Johnson et al, 2006,
pg. 96). Towards the end of Big Brother 3(Mol, 2003), Marcellas shows his evil side by
breaking up people’s alliances and also pointing out one of the competitor’s problem with
alcoholism. Michael showed his selfishness in episode two of Celebrity Mole when he
would not go cliff diving, causing the entire team to lose money. Ibrehem displayed
selfishness during every competition involving water on Survivor: Palau (Burnett, 2006)
by just giving up and not trying to help complete the challenge.
The final division of competition is auto-competition, competition for self
improvement, is the most important element in most competitions (Whittemore, 1925).
For Ibrehem, he competed against himself in two ways. He had to make himself swim
and hold his breath better to increase his performance and he had to focus on his
mediation to make it through the harsh living conditions. Michael competed against
himself on every quiz he took to identify the mole and he was pretty successful.
Marcellas battled himself by eating disgusting foods at the food challenges in Big Brother
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3(Mol, 2003). Another part of auto-competition is self-improvement. When most people
compete, they focus a majority of their efforts on surpassing their best performance
(Whittemore, 1925). Ibrehem displays this at a reward challenge where he has to shoot
targets. He misses his very first one, but after taking more time to focus he increases his
accuracy and shoots the targets. The biggest example for self-improvement is Marcellas
in the beginning of Big Brother 3(Mol, 2003). Marcellas was seen as an outsider by the
rest of the competitors and they were going to evict him. At the last moment possible,
Marcellas changed his personality and became more sociable. He was able to avoid being
evicted at all because he was able to make friends in a very short amount of time by
improving his mental attitude. According to the book The Survival Game (Barash, 2003),
in the end of mental competition, every competitor, even if he or she is on a team, is
independently responsible for his or her actions even if they are being influenced by
others.
African-American are shown physically in competitive reality television most of
the time. All three of my artifacts show each person using their brute strength more often
to try to win than deciding to mentally compete against their competitors. Even though
some of the characteristics listed in this paper are seen in some other social groups,
certain ones like reaction time and physical strength are used very strongly with AfricanAmericans. Even though the mental aspect of competition was used more by the other
ethnic groups, the African-Americans were still able to lie and cheat their ways through
the games a little bit. In closing, I believe reality television only wants AfricanAmericans to reaffirm the stereotypical physically superior African-American male, but
not the average African-American character that is able to use both brains and muscles.
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References
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and strategies: Understanding constructive competition. Group Dynamics:
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Jones, J. M., & Hochner, A. R. (1973). Racial differences in sports activities: A look at
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