BOB GARFIELD: We're back with On the Media. I'm Brooke Gladstone.

BOB GARFIELD: And I'm Bob Garfield. This just in from the world of reality TV -- complex human beings are being edited into two-dimensional stereotypes that are none too positive. This season brought us several versions of one popular stock character -- the "Sister With Attitude." She was on The Apprentice and America's Next Top Model and Survivor All-Stars. Teresa Wiltz chronicled this stereotype for the Washington Post in a story called The Evil Sista' of Reality Television. She says that producers, editors and the subjects themselves are complicit in bolstering stereotypes as a way to furnish the shows with recognizable characters. The Sister With Attitude character is an ornery black woman, and according to Wiltz, that's about all we get to see.

TERESA WILTZ: She's going to be very confrontational; she's probably going to be wagging her finger in their face, like Alicia from Survivor All-Stars who talked about, basically, her shtick which is The Finger - capital T, capital F.

ALICIA: There, there is a talent to The Finger. You, you can't do it without the head. You can't just do the head without the finger. It's got to be both -- you've got to be really angry, and you have to be in the moment. You know what I mean? So you have to be a little "ghetto." You have to have a little "rhythm." You know, and you have to, you have to be mad. You have to let it out from every part. You know? What happens to people that get in my way? You haven't seen me do the finger? That's what's going to happen.

BOB GARFIELD: That's Alicia. What about the woman on America's Next Top Model?

TERESA WILTZ:Camille is the woman who thinks that she's beautiful and she's got a body, and she thinks that, that that's enough, so she again also has alienated all the cast members, and there was a scene where they were all acting in an acting class, and they were all supposed to recount some painful episode, and so everyone does this and just starts boohoo-ing, and Camille is like -- No, I'm not going to dig into my past and start crying in front of you alls, which I don't blame her, frankly, but then that further alienated her from the rest of the cast who were fulfilling yet another stereotype which is the whiney, crying girl.

BOB GARFIELD: Now for the breakout bitch of the year, that would have to be Omarosa from The Apprentice. Tell me about her.

TERESA WILTZ:Omarosa is a former Clinton political appointee, but exactly what she was appointed to do we're not sure. Tall, elegant, icy--and just a hag. I mean she would say things like 'please take responsibility for your actions,' which no one wants to hear. But at any rate, she's fired, and she's out of there, and she says she's been the victim of a smear and it's all bad editing. [CLIP FROM THE APPRENTICE] [MUSIC]

MAN: "Omarosa, this competition isn't about how much you know, it's about leadership and getting along with your team. It's not about distracting your teammates from the task at hand. Omarosa, go out and sell paintings or whatever the hell you're doing. I don't like excuses. In this case, Omarosa has to go; you're fired."1

BOB GARFIELD:And I'm like, ouch-- now there are other stereotypes in reality TV. You mentioned in your piece the small town naif trying to hold on to his values and so forth; the bumbling bigot who doesn't even realize that he's an Archie Bunker character in the making, and then the troubled soul you describe who's just one step away from rehab. But the sister with attitude comes lugging a whole lot of racial baggage--

TERESA WILTZ: Right.

BOB GARFIELD: -- as well. Does it make this a little more dangerous and more concerning than the run-of-the-mill caricature that we see on reality TV?

TERESA WILTZ: Oh, I think so. Someone I had spoken with who writes for Reality Blurred says that basically with these shows these archetypes are cast. There's very little time to convey character or anything like that. It's very plot-driven, so they're these images that people think they recognize, so they can go oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know her. I think it is dangerous because it does reinforce stereotypes that people have. Looking at message boards about Omarosa, she is so hated, and I read a lot of 'em. They all mention that black girl. She couldn't just be, you know, that pain in the ass political appointee -- it was always in reference to her race, and so she becomes a stand-in for every other black woman out there which I think is unfair. And there are other black women that don't fit that stereotype that are in reality TV, but it's usually the woman who's perceived to be the troublemaker that's going to get the air time.

BOB GARFIELD:Please tell me that there's something uplifting in all of this, [LAUGHTER] something we can take out of this that's not just another depressing observation about the media culture. Is there no good news to the sassy sister story?

TERESA WILTZ: Well I think the fact that you've got someone like Omarosa who is so obviously talented, accomplished, attractive without fitting into stereotypical norms of, you know, what's beautiful in white America. You know, a strong, tall, dark-skinned sister that Donald Trump acknowledges is just gorgeous and smart and she's a PhD candidate, she obviously comes equipped with a lot of savvy. And so I think in that, that, that's great news.

BOB GARFIELD: The only problem is she's a total pain in the ass.

TERESA WILTZ:Right. You know, I think what's sad is she's not allowed to just be a pain in the ass. There's always going to be a racial component to it, and so for me, I wish there would be a day, being totally naive and optimistic, when you can just be a total bitch and it doesn't matter what color you are.

BOB GARFIELD: Theresa Wiltz is a staff writer for the Washington Post. She wrote the piece titled "The Evil Sista of Reality Television."

TERESA WILTZ: Thanks for having me.