Paige Wiser, Meet Captain Obvious

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

So down at the blog for the Chicago Sun-Times journalist/writer/alphabet studier Paige Wiseron asked the following questions:

I don't want to take anything away from the brother-sister team that was smart enough, athletic enough, and sane enough to win the race. Yay for family, etc. But I can't get this nagging question out of my mind: Was it fair for Tammy and Victor to dominate the challenges in China, considering that they are of Chinese descent and speak Chinese? Especially considering one of the challenges was, um, to speak Chinese?

The leg was late enough in the race to give them a significant boost. I don't think that anyone should be penalized for specific talents, but it seems like it wouldn't have been that difficult to change the restaurant challenge to something more fair. It would be like casting me in the next season of "The Amazing Race" -- and then scheduling roadblocks in Woodfield Mall. I might even recuse myself.

Am I overthinking this?
Uh - yeah - I think you are Paige. And while I could go on and on about how this is an issue simply because Tammy and Victor are Asian versus if it was a white brother and sister team who were Italian, spoke Italian, and one of the challenges was in Italy - I'll just reprint some of the comments from one poster in particular:

Captain Obvious says:

-Mirna and Charla were in TWO series of the Amazing Race, their season(5) and All-Stars and guess what? Mirna spoke fluent Spanish and used it all the time when they went to South America and they LOST both times.

-Last season, Terence and Sarah...Sarah spoke FLUENT Portuguese and Spanish and used it all the time in Brazil(where Portuguese is the main language spoken)and Bolivia. Oh yeah, they lost too [...]

Examples from recent memory-

AR14-Oh no, lets not let the sisters on because they're former college athletes! They can win every athletic challenge and hey, the former cheerleaders...let's not let them in because they can memorize a dance routine better than anybody else like it's second nature. Oh yes, both teams lost.

AR 13-Leg 9 (Kazakhstan → Russia), Toni and Dallas...Dallas had to carry those heavy bags of flour. Oh no, let's not let him in the race, he was too strong and fit compared to other competitors. Oh yeah, they lost too [...]

Do I even have to mention all of the other past contestants that have spoke other languages(and have USED them in the countries visited)and not won? Or does Paige Wiser need to be Wiser and take the foot out of her mouth before being so ignorant?
Well said Captain Obvious.

Well said indeed...