Congratulations, you're a racist!

Before you read this post, you better make sure you've watched ABC's Lost.  There are spoilers from the second season.  So, if you haven't seen it, go watch it, come back and thank me for introducing you to the best series to ever grace television, then read this entry.

As you can see from previous posts, TV and movies are full of subtle, subliminal, and secret messages.   It takes some skill to pick up on them.  It takes greater skill to realize that your audience has been brainwashed and use it to your advantage.  Guess what - the Lost writers have these skills.  Let me introduce you to a fairly minor character in the series.  Her name is Rose.  Here's a picture:

Just so we're clear, the guy sitting next to her is not hitting on her.  You see, these people's plane crashed and hard.  And by hard, I mean it split into three pieces while in the air and each of the three pieces landed in different places.  The plot follows the story of the people in the middle section.  In the pilot episode, they hunt down the cockpit and find the co-pilot.  Poor guy only lasted a couple lines of dialogue.  Anyway, no one knows where the tail section is.  This is a problem for Rose because her husband, Bernard, was in the bathroom at the back of the plane the moment things started breaking apart.  That's exactly why I don't like using public restrooms.

In the picture above, Rose is explaining how she believes Bernard is still alive.  Jack, the guy next to her, is trying to explain how big of an idiot she is, but in kinder terms.  It's super-NOT-effective.

Then things happen.  The castaways discover that they're not alone on the island.  The locals speak English, have clothes (fewf), kidnap pregnant people, then murder extras when their preggars escape.  (Lost is a drama.)  These people are quickly named "The Others", despite their lack of Nichole Kidman.

Begin season two.

A trio of main characters find themselves washed up on the other side of the island.  It's a long story that involves supernatural children - but that's not important.  Anyway, the three amigos (not the actual three amigos) get thrown into a pit by... (wait for it)... the others!:

Turns out, The Others aren't that friendly on this part of the island either.  Bummer.  As it also turns out, these aren't The Others.  After some off-screen interrogations (and possibly hop scotch), the two groups discover they both got to the island on the same plane. That's right, these are the survivors from the plane's tail section.  Bummer.

Now look at the above picture again.  Look at it.  Loooook aaaat iiiiit. LOOK AT IT.

Did you really look at it?

Is Bernard there?

Now, I don't fancy myself a racist.  In fact, I try not to be.  However, when I learned that the small group of tailies were not Others, I was sad because I thought Bernard was dead.  But he didn't die.  I'll show you:

Let me apologize for the picture of old people kissing.  I wanted to use something with shock value.  Anyway, don't tell me you assumed it was the black guy from the tail section.  That's racist.  Also, don't tell me you thought Bernard was dead because there was no old, black guy from the tail section.  That's racist.  It's also what I did.  Whoops.

So, thank you, Lost, for showing myself just how terrible of a person I can be.

Now I have a question for you: Did you pass racist test?