Host Jeff Probst says the idea "actually came from the criticism that 'Survivor' was not ethnically diverse enough."The coloreds are getting uppity, so let's give them what they want, but completely twisted so that it'll be a fucking horror show. That'll teach 'em.
To be clear, I don't seriously believe that the idea stemmed from a desire to spite people of color for complaining about their nice, white show. More likely, it was just the amazing, unthinking stupidity and short-sightedness some white folks have when addressing race issues. In an episode of the Addicted to Race podcast, they read a listener email describing an HR director's brilliant idea for celebrating diversity. Her idea was to have people of different races and cultures dress up in their traditional garb, and other (read: white) people could walk around the office and look at them and ask them about their cultures. The HR director wasn't a bad person, she just wasn't thinking. Luckily, the woman who wrote the email was the voice of reason and patiently explained why the "colored folks zoo" was a bad idea.
Of course, no less a racial and cultural scholar than Rush Limbaugh has weighed in on the subject. I think that he was rattled by a caller's accusation of racism, because he felt it necessary to say this about white people:
He added that "the white tribe," "if it behaves as it historically has," will "bring along vials of diseases" and "will wind up oppressing" the other tribes by "deny[ing] them benefits" and "property," but will later "try to put [the other tribes] on some kind of benefit program." He further asserted that if CBS "allows ... cheating" and "oppression," "then of course the white tribe is going to win."
