Four white guys talk about black people

 I knew there was something wrong here.

I knew the host was white. I knew Rob Cesterino, the "smartest guy never to have won Survivor" (Jeff Probst's words, not mine), was white. I knew I was white. And our provocateur from last night's "Attack of the Show!" panel ... his name was Matthew Felling. Didn't sound very ethnic to me.

Still, I should've asked -- what were four white guys doing debating whether Mark Burnett had done a disservice splitting the new season of "Survivor" into racial groups?

In my defense, just before the interview, and feeling nervous about my own limited perspective, I phoned up my friend and colleague Eric Deggans at the St. Pete Times, who had grilled Probst pretty effectively in the conference call the week before. And I took to the discussion two key points from Eric, both of which I managed to get in during the surprisingly meaty six-minute free-for-all (host Kevin Pereira doesn't believe in playing traffic cop) .

First, that a lot of black folks feel the African-American characters chosen on previous editions of "Survivor" reinforced the worst stereotypes of their race: Gervase fathering kids out of wedlock, other players unable to swim, etc.  Second, that the sponsors who dropped out of "Survivor" did so BEFORE the apartheid rules were announced to the public, and that these sponsors were moving on because, not that they put it quite this way, but "Survivor" was yesterday's news. Its ratings were down and it was time to hawk Pontiac Azteks somewhere else.

So when you see me in the video clip, just imagine the head of Eric Deggans stuck on my shoulders, because I'm effectively making his points for him.

Or ... don't.

Earlier: I praised Thursday's "Survivor" episode.