Traitors - Black Contestants - WARNING, SPOILERS! (Title edited by MNHQ)

[Jimpson]

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Time and time again black contestants are voted out early doors on reality show. The latest series of the traitors has been on for 2 days and 2 black women have already gone. I even checked the statistics with AI:

Black contestants are statistically eliminated earlier in some reality shows, particularly Survivorand Big Brother, a pattern that has been documented in studies and fan analyses, often attributed to systemic bias or strategic targeting, with discussions on the topic growing as diverse casting increases. While some instances involve clear gameplay, many viewers and players observe a recurring trend where Black individuals, especially women, are targeted in the early stages, leading to deep discussions about racism, privilege, and gameplay within these shows.

Isn’t it about time that protections were put in place on these shows, to make it a fair for all?

Anyone that doesn’t like a black person is being racist. Therefore black people should be forced into positions and kept there. It’s nice for black people to be put into places because of their colour.

The Secret Traitor should have really given the same 2 remaining names, and just added one person to the list otherwise they are making the Non Secret Traitors discount more other competitors to be the Secret Traitor than they need to. That again, stupid gameplay.

I think you're right OP.

There’s no way the white people won’t have unconscious bias at play if they have been raised here in uk

simply because we live in a structurally and systemically racist society - even if you wanted to not be able to help it - it’s physically impossible - we are all in the system - this is the worse setting because it’s a group

example I saw last night was the detective women feeling at liberty to completely interrupt Judy mid flow and start her own analysis

as well as Sam gunning for Judy becuase as a black women he found her more suspicious

bet Ross is out next

The first two voted out were female, over 40. One was loud and annoying and also had a disability. One was lovely but unlucky because it seems like she reacted to Claudia saying traitors and this was picked up by another poc. Both were working class with strong accents.

There are so many things you could pick up on, why race?

Personally I do feel there is a problem with a pack mentality amongst the males and trying to vote out the older females but then many of the other females joined in too, so maybe not. Likewise the poc.

There’s not a lot you can do about it anyway as anything put in place to help prevent certain groups of people to stay in longer would end up being unfair to another group.

It is entertainment at the end of the day, nothing to get too het up about, they all chose to apply knowing the rules and how the game works….basically a popularity contest to start with.

So basically you are saying that all white people have an unconscious bias against black people, simply because they are white and they can't help it? Does that also mean that all people of colour have an unconscious bias against white people simply because they are black and can't help it?

Because if so, then people of colour will automatically assume that anything a white person does or says is racially motivated. Such as interrupting them, for instance. Why would it be all right for a white person to interrupt another white person, but not all right for them to interrupt a black person? That would mean you are expecting white people to treat people differently based on their skin colour, which is surely the complete opposite of equality.

I would of thought interrupting isn’t great whoever it is

Of course there can be an array of reasons but it’s widely reported by POC that white people interrupt them more freely than other white people

white people are the power holding group in this country and round the world so just swapping roles round doesn’t work as in your analogy each have different positions in society

white people need to work on this by constantly checking their behaviour so they can irradiate it to a decree, but not entirely..as we are seeing on this programme

this explains it better than i can

interrupting a Black person, often called "overtalking," is a recognized form of racial microaggression
. It is a subtle, everyday slight that communicates a dismissive message and demeans the person's identity and communication style, even if the perpetrator's intention is not overtly racist.

of course - black women are not allowed to be loud in case they get called aggressive which they do frequently and yes one wrong move wrong as others did also - plenty to choose from but Sam was able to manipulate the group easily - like Judy was saying “what have they got to go on” we hardly know each other yet - but of course she was treated as more suspicious imv because of her skin colour

the detective women did a massive boo boo with the graves - someone else drunk a traitors drink..there were loads of behaviours that could make you question

and yes intersection of - women - black - older black women

let’s hope it isn’t Maz tonight - after that maybe Ross

Isn't saying all white people are x, well, racist?

If all white people are called racist no matter what they do, then what is the point?

They may as well just be as racist as you are being.

Spoiler...Ross wasn't out next and even had white people saying he was being set up. Bastards.

Yeah they are

we are speculating…he’s defo under suspicion

how on earth am I being racist?

As a black family watching traitors, this is becoming so predictable and hard to watch. We have only finished episode 2 and It’s no coincidence most of the minorities were up for murder in the first episode. 2 black women already gone and it looks like Ross is next…100% unconscious bias and makes for uncomfortable viewing. This doesn’t happen in the US version…we are sick of it and sadly are not surprised. We won’t be watching anymore.

😞

I hear you

I'm not sure there is a way to institute "protections" in a game like that which wouldn't ruin the game.

It could be interesting I suppose to have all black contestants which would accomplish the same thing but I can't see the producers really wanting to do that for perfectly valid tv reasons.

It seems to me that in general, people have an inclination to vote for people like themselves in games like this where they don't really know the people involved. That is, if there isn't some really compelling reason someone seems particularly popular or unpopular like a grating personality.

Sometimes that might be someone like themselves in terms of social class, or interests, or politics, but also ethnic background. And actually I think that's pretty universal, you have say a Persian family watching and there is a contestant they really relate to, maybe reminds them of their uncle or something, and so they preference that person. That tendency is across racial and ethnic groups. I could easily see my dp doing this for example, he is Caribbean and nostalgic for home at times and would tend to feel strong solidarity with someone from his home country. He wouldn't think it's important or "racist" because it's a silly tv show, if that makes sense?

But in the UK, outside of certain large cities, blacks are a minority, so on a tv show they may well be disadvantaged by this tendency.

I suppose the other thing I might want to look at is whether they show runners are looking for a specific "type" of black person, because they think it makes good television, that is certainly something I've seen before. If that type of person is more likely to get voted off, that would also account for the disparity.

You are basing your assumption about a whole section of society based solely on the colour of their skin. Surely that is the very definition of racism.

I appreciate you didn’t check but you’re wrong. I actually think it’s less a race issue than an older woman issue. In series 1, the first to be voted out was an older white woman whose name escapes me but who had lost a hand and was targeted for not raising a glass (because she didn’t have a hand to raise it with!). The second series, Sonya - an older white woman - was voted out first. The third series was actually a younger man who was an estate agent I think. He wasn’t a POC.

But for three out of four series to have an older woman banished first shows unconscious bias towards older women, especially - as several PP have said - from young men. So depressing.

There has been a bit of suspicion on James, actually - a few people have said that he is throwing out accusations all over the place and that looks dodgy. No doubt if challenged he will use his ADHD as an explanation and then the others will feel they can’t vote for him.

I’ve been saying this for ages. It always seems to be a black or brown contestant voted out first. People seem to take a sudden dislike they can’t quite put their finger on to said contestant. It’s such an obvious example of unconscious bias.

if everyone had been white or black
first voted off would have been the least attractive

Are you telling black or brown contestants that they need to play the game better if they want to stay in? Bit racist.

If you'd watched it you'd have seen the first one was voted out precisely to throw the suspicion towards the person she mounted in the car park. Part of staying in is exactly to throw suspicion at other people. That's the whole game.

Now this is a spoiler!

I’m going to say (without double checking on wiki) that the first person voted out on every UK series of the Traitors has been a POC.

This is 100% wrong. On every previous non-celeb series a white person has been banished first.

Are POC never allowed to be banished first? Because so far it's happened 25% of the time despite POC making up about a third of the contestants, which is less than one would expect, and people are still complaining.

@Wirelessbird @DefiniteMeteor and all those who made sweeping statements and accusations without fact checking first, what’s your response to this?

I should clarify in case my post is read the wrong way, when I say "which is less than one would expect" above, I mean the proportion of first banishments where the banished person is a person of colour is lower than the proportion of POC on the show.

I don't mean that the proportion of contestants who are POC is less than you would expect.

The proportion of contestants who are POC is about double what you would expect based on U.K. demographics.

No Im saying that white people have unconscious bias and carry out micro aggressions and that while our society remains structurally oppressive there will always be this dynamic - it was you that said they were all racist

Without having all the stats to hand a quick search provided this;

• In recent UK series, the first few eliminations (both “murdered” and banished) were people of colour, which sparked complaints about bias from fans and media commentators.

• Writers and commentators have observed that players of colour were often labelled “suspicious” or “traitorous” more quickly than white players, and viewers pointed out a pattern (or the perception of a pattern) of early targeting.

• A Reddit summary compilation of early exits across multiple seasons suggested that ~40% of early eliminations were from ethnic minorities, and ~35% of minority contestants overall were eliminated early across the data they gathered (note: this is fan-collected data and not official).

so perhaps not as clear cut as “the first to be eliminated” across the board. But clear patterns of bias which are echoed in opinions on this thread and in wider media. Does this pattern feel different to your perception @TawnyVowel?