DOES REALITY TV HAVE A PROBLEM WITH BLACK WOMEN?

As drama and fiction continue to get more diverse, the likes of Love Island, Big Brother and TOWIE either still seriously lack in numbers or use black women to exacerbate stereotypes.

To be a British reality television fan whilst black and female, is to be constantly conflicted.

On the one hand, a desire to see ourselves on screen leaves us sadly wondering if Ofcom’s regulation only permits one black person per show, every other year. On the other hand, we seriously joke that white people can keep their reality TV programmes – it’s the one place we don’t want diversity, fearing the almost agenda-like commitment to only casting those that embody every stereotype going.

But as drama and fiction continue to get more diverse, isn’t it time reality TV got real?

‘Grafting’ might have infected every 20-something’s universe this summer, but black women don’t exist in the Love Island universe. Out of the 39 female contestants who have appeared on the show, only three have been mixed race – including this year’s Montana Brown and Ellisha-Jade (who made it as far as Casa Amor). Not one has been black.

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Rachel Christie took part in the hit show’s first series; a programme as much about popularity as it is desirability. But despite being a literal beauty queen, Christie still found herself continually struggling with recouplings on the show.

‘When it comes round to the guys picking the women, you know they’re not going to pick you,’ sighs Christie. ‘A lot of people are brainwashed into thinking [black] is not beautiful. And obviously that’s a load of rubbish.’

As a mixed raced woman, Christie believes she was fair skinned enough to be cast but still too dark to find a match as her white counterparts did.

‘They are more likely to put a dark skinned man in the house than they are a dark skinned woman,’ she says. ‘I was shocked to see a mixed race man in there when I first went in, but then that is their black. [For the producers of the show], mixed race is their black and that is enough. I was also shocked when I saw Marcel …4

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