Wednesday night for me is ATNM night (America’s Next Top Model). Tonight is the first time I questioned myself for watching this show. Sorry to give away any spoilers to those who haven’t watched it yet, but I need to get this out. Not only am I completely blown away, but this episode’s photo shoot was absolutely horrible.

The girls are in Hawaii and for their photo shoot they had to embrace hapa, which means “half” in Hawaiian. It’s more commonly referred to Hawaiians that are half-Hawaiians. However, Tyra Banks has taken it upon herself to assume that it means “half” for ALL ethnic people and as a result, had the girls dress in two different cultures and tried to pass that off as being “half” or “mixed. Immediately, I knew this was going to be something really bad. Tyra assigned the girls various hapa. They ranged from all over the place: Greek and Mexican, Moroccan and Russian, Malagasy (someone from Madagascar) and Japanese, Native American and Eastern Indian, and Tibetan and Egyptian.

Almost immediately, I looked at REB and said, “Ha. That’s weird. Please tell me the girl who has Eastern Indian and Native American isn’t going to be given a head dress and a sari and told to pose…”

I was spot on.

It’s like Tyra and everyone else on the show wasn’t thinking. Yes, these ethnic people still wear some of the clothing and accessories of their culture, but it’s a bit exaggerated. Maybe that was the point, who knows.

The girl who had to represent the Native American/Eastern Indian said, “I was really excited for this photo shoot. I’ve always wanted to know what it’s like to be of the Indian race. I always remember being in school and reading about the history and how poised they are.”

… o_O …umm…OK..?!?!?!

It didn’t help that Tyra stepped on her soap box about how they had to be different races – to make sure they embrace it and not offend anyone. She should really say that to herself. Last time I checked there were different types of ethnic people and only one human race.  Stupid.

This show just gets more and more awful and makes my brain hurt. So why do I continue to watch it? The world may never know.