Last night, Esther and I were vegging out and a new NBC show came on, Identity. The premise of the show is to use a persons snap judgments to guess details about 12 people.

The game unfolds as the contestant picks an identity - ranging anywhere from a profession to a shoe size - and tries to match it with one of the 12 strangers. The amount of money the contestant accumulates increases with each correctly identified stranger. If all 12 are matched up correctly, the player is rewarded with the top prize of $500,000.

Unfortunately, the show should be called “Stereotype”. The show, while is winnable compared to “Deal or No Deal” or “1 vs. 100” as alluded to by TV Squad, all it does in re-enforce stereotypes. Of course the person who is large, Asian and dressed in the traditional loincloth is probably the sumo wrestler and that’s where the problem lies.

The show puts people who fit the stereotypical look of most of the identities and puts them in the line up. How can this be a positive thing. Imagine when the identity is “Been to Prison” and the person pick the African American. Yes, they get made an ass of on national TV, but what is the redeeming value? Seriously?