Which racial group can run the fastest: the Blacks or the Whites? Which can swim the longest: the Asians or the Hispanics? Climb the highest? Which can outlast the rest?

Insulted yet?

Scandalized that these questions were even put into print? Well then, brace yourself for the new season of Survivor: Cook Islands.

This year in -- what is I'm sure -- a cheap marketing trick to try to bolster the show's falling ratings, the Survivor creators decided it would be an interesting social experiment to split up the teams depending on race.

So, in other words, this season you can gather around the television and cheer for your favorite racial group.

Does this seem wrong to anyone else? Aren't we supposed to be moving away from racial segregation, instead of finding new ways to encourage it?

This is a time in America when ignorance and bigotry still fester in the minds of many Americans. The headlines are littered with news of hate crimes. People still fly the Confederate flag and sling out racial slurs and jokes in everyday conversation.

Really, I would think we would be doing everything we can to try to eliminate racism, rather than promoting it.

The creators of the show even have the audacity to defend their decision by saying it is in response to criticism that the show does not have enough diversity.

In reality, it's an exploitative, ignorant marketing ploy to draw attention to a show that people have stopped talking about (and yes, I realize the irony of my writing a column about it and therefore attracting even more attention to the show).

Over the last couple of centuries I believe we have been making serious steps forward in equality, but it hasn't come easily.

This is an issue over which people have suffered, gone to jail, even given up their lives. Not too long ago a great leader emerged who had a dream about equality, not dependent on race or religion or gender. He was murdered for his cause, but his legacy lived on.

I can't help but believe he would be devastated by this publicity scheme, to see the giant step back from where he, and many other great thinkers, had led us.

To be fair, I haven't yet seen the show, so I cannot fully condemn it. However, any show that has white supremacist groups cheering about how their cause is finally being recognized is really not a show I want to be watching.