11 days until my birthday! Thanks to Sydney for sending a very cool e-card. Dancing babies rule.

Yesterday I mentioned that reality TV shows only cast one or two token minority members each season. More often than not, they are portrayed very poorly or are never given a fair opportunity to win. Case in point - "Survivor : Vanuatu". Never mind that in my opinion, it is shaping up to be the worst of the nine Survivors. This time there are no black women and only one black male, Rory. Already he is being picked on by his white, Southern tribe members. One of them commented that Rory is having problems fitting in. Another made a point to criticize him for taking the game too seriously. In every other season of "Survivor" before this, the token black contestants have been portrayed as lazy, surly or selfish. But it's not just CBS. Over on NBC, you have "The Apprentice". Last night, the sole black woman, Stacy J., was fired because the rest of her teammates complained to Trump that she was mentally unstable. This just because she joked around with her Magic 8-Ball and the other white girls felt threatened by it. I shit you not. And then you have the dating reality shows like "The Bachelor" or "Average Joe". I don't think any interracial couple has ever resulted from one of these shows and I'm skeptical we'll see one in the future. Sure they keep the minorities around in the first round so they don't appear to be racist but they are gone soon after that. The longer that these reality shows remain on the air, the more apparent these trends are.

Yom Kippur begins tonight and continues all through tomorrow. In the meantime, this blog will fast!