(this is where he puts on the stereotypical black woman impression to act as Michaela even though it sounds nothing like Michaela) 'will you give me seven cups of coffee and a cup of sugar'".

I just went back and watched this part a couple times over out of genuine curiosity and I'm preeeeetty sure that's just JT raising the pitch of his voice to try to sound more feminine, not an attempt to sound more "black." I don't hear anything in his voice any closer to an attempt at emulating AAVE than his ordinary Southern accent.

JT was acting like an ass to someone he clearly thought of as annoying and (key word here) immature, which to me would result in basically all the things he said. Maybe he formed that impression a little firmly compared to the others on his tribe, but the consensus from the other players does seem to be that Michaela is a hothead--both Sandra and Aubry suggested as much in the first episode and Malcolm was very unfavorable towards her in his outgoing press. She's also described herself that way. Don't get me wrong, JT was plainly condescending towards her and it crossed a line of general decency for me, but this isn't the first time he's acted like this either. He didn't say things like this at Tribal because there was never a time when he was in direct opposition to the guy, but JT talked down about Rupert really, really hard once or twice in HvV and made it clear he did not respect Rupert as a functioning human being whatsoever. If it had come down to it at a premerge Tribal I have no doubt he'd have taken a verbal shit on Rupert too.

I've worked frequently with Somali and Arabic children and parents in the past, I've seen and heard a looooooooot of implicit racism directed their way. I don't deny that it's a factor in real life and I also don't deny that it's a factor in Survivor sometimes. But I really don't see it here. This doesn't seem markedly different in tone to me from any time anyone has condescended to another person or expressed pleasure at their (seemingly) imminent departure in other circumstances.