Maybe I’m Just Overreacting: Cash Cab.

Lately, I have become OBSESSED with the show Cash Cab. What I love about this game show is that the contestants have no idea when they are entering the cab that they are going to be on this game show. It’s really fun to see the contestants’ reaction when they realize they are on television. I love the questions asked on the show because a lot of them can be answered just from deciphering the question. And, most of all, I love that the game is located in New York City because it gives me hope that I will, unwittingly, have a chance to be on it one day.

For the past month, I have been watching the show nonstop and I started to realize that the majority, at least 75%, of the contestants are white people. I am not trying to make the show come off as racist, but I think this is really unnerving because New York City is such a diverse place. Is it really that hard to find some minorities that want a cab ride? Whenever I go to New York, I see so many DIVERSE people in cabs, that this part of the show does not make sense to me. The mainly white contestants are unnerving because the driver INTENTIONALLY picks up it’s passengers as people he thinks would do well on the game show. So, does that mean the Cash Cab people think that white people are better than minorities in trivia knowledge? I think this is an awful perception to have.

The way that the Cash Cab picks its contestants is different than how other game shows pick their contestants. For example, to be on Jeopardy you have to apply and pass tests and all that stuff. But on Cash Cab, they base who they pick on how the person looks – which does not say anything about how smart a person is. If they see a group of yuppie-ish clean cut white men and a group of casually dressed Hispanic or African men, they are more likely to pick up the white males. I can’t be completely sure they would do this, but this is my gut feeling about this.

Btw, I haven’t seen every single episode of Cash Cab so I’m not entirely sure how many minorities have been on the show. But honestly, from the episodes I have seen, it is very small.

Or maybe I’m just overreacting?

What say you?