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?

No that’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is that unconscious bias means that people often attribute suspicion, complicated feelings and negative projections onto people of colour or people who are otherwise ‘different’. In a game like this this kind of bias are easy to observe. All of this is very well researched and documented; all of us have unconscious bias whether we accepted or not. It is a very difficult thing to accept about ourselves and often results and I was wanting to push against the very idea that we could hold biased views.

I noticed years ago on love island in the initial line up the black women would be picked last or by a black man.
it’s unconscious bias isn’t it.
I think reality shows highlight aspects of society like unconscious racism, or the fact that women are often taken less seriously/critiqued more than men. Younger people are often dismissed as are more elderly people.
id question with Judy wether as well as being black did the fact she’s an outspoken northern working class woman go against her as well.

Typing quickly. Last scentence should read; and can often result in us wanting to push against the very idea we could hold biased views.

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).

I'm curious about whether people are ignoring the fact that there are so many players who are POC when thinking about these things.

Taking a quick look at the season 3 cast for example, I think 9/25 are POC = 36%. I haven't checked that stat on 40% of early eliminations being POC, but if it were correct then it wouldn't be surprising given that the percentage of POC contestants rounded to the nearest 10% on that season is 40%.

Just to clarify, I'm not saying that racism doesn't exist, or intending to complain that the races of the contestants does not reflect the UK population (I don't particularly care). I am really just curious about whether increasing the number of POC contestants is giving people a misleading impression that the voting is racist, because they see POC being voted off frequently without reflecting on how many of the contestants are POC. It would be ironic if something which was probably done by producers and the casting company in an effort to appear "anti-racist" is making people think the voting is racist.

I see this in strictly too.
So many times a very average male has won or been kept in at the expense of a much better female (often poc female.)
This year George was kept in for far too long.
Darren Gough won and wasn’t anything other than average.
Bill Bailey is another example.
Yet when this is raised it’s always dismissed as ‘Oh but I like him.’
The same with the nastiness about Amber. People openly saying ‘there is something about her I can’t warm to.’ It’s just nastiness.
Women criticised for being too loud and opinionated. See Amanda on traitors.
Last year part of Leanne winning was down to her hiding the fact that she was an army officer. She pretended to fit the role of dumb, blonde bimbo who was afraid of heights and could only talk about painting her nails and how long her hair extensions would last. The other, male contestants, even commented on how surprised they were at her level of fitness. An attribute she said she was careful to reign in so as not to appear too much of a threat, even though physical fitness is irrelevant to winning the game.

But as explained by a few of us, it’s actually not - in fact this is the first UK civilian series out of four where a POC has been voted out first. There have been two white older women and one white young-ish man voted out first in previous series. In the celebrity series Niko went first but that seemed to be because they were suspicious of him due to his YouTube pranks - so a genuine reason rather than “I can’t put my finger on why but you just seem like a traitor”.

I know what unconscious bias is.

Do you think that the contestants should be ignoring the person whose head turned when C said 'Traitors' because she they don't want to be seen to be racist? And the person who literally mounted another contestant?

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 60% of contestants were not, what is the mix of contestants overall from these stats? 60/40% You have to compare it to the actual contestants that were in it in the first place.

I think there is a lot of unconscious/conscious bias going on - against women and people of colour. But I'd like to throw another dimension into the discussion. Intelligence. There is a very open theme of 'get rid of people who are clever and therefore would be good traitors' in every series so far (which in itself is terrible logic). Like the Dr in series 3, and David nearly got done by that theory in celebs. Hugo was voted out on that reason 'because he is a barrister' (it was more luck he was a traitor), and they are suspicious of Amanda because she is obviously intelligent. They say time and time again 'that person is clever so they must be a traitor'. Lots of being threatened by intelligence (which makes sense in a game to be fair).
We know black and other ethnic minority pupils outperform white pupils at school (especially boys). Are the black and other ethnic minority candidates also being hit more because they are on average more academically 'bright', especially the ones being selected for the show? And the ones who arent being voted out are the ones who arent coming across as bright (eg Mina and Cat were both reserved and hid their intelligence a bit). Previous series this worked for Leann as a white woman too, she pretended to be ditsy and she won.
I think this series has more young white able bodied men than previous series have so I do think we will see an effect from that. Sam obviously felt threatened by Judy as a clever older black woman. Black, female, clever = triple threat. I loved the way she called him out in the kitchen!

I think the head turn seemed to be barely mentioned other than by the contestant herself. Herd mentality was clearly at play in that first round table, in my opinion, it would be bizarre to not expect unconscious bias to be playing apart in that, not the entirety of everything going on in each individual decision-making process, but certainly a part.

In these kind of conversations, I can never really understand the thought process behind people wanting to deny the reality of all various types of unconscious bias. Plenty of people on this thread have spoken to various other examples of it on other shows and in Traitors itself.

YANBU op to raise this

yet the biggest concern by responses is that you have spoilt one episode 🙄

I think Judy went because she was an outspoken northern older woman rather than because of the colour of her skin. As I said in my earlier post, older women have been banished first in three out of four UK series so far. They don’t make up a disproportionate number of the players so there is clearly a pattern here.

Absolutely! The players are always suspicious of anyone who appears to have an above average IQ - this of course works in the traitors’ favour because they are left with credulous sheep who they can easily misdirect. That’s why Harry was so close to Mollie in series 2, same with Wilf and Hannah in series 1 (sorry Mollie and Hannah!). It’s also why Jaz tried to conceal the fact he had worked things out until the end - but left it too late. I think Hugo should probably have lied about his job like the other barrister is.

Herd mentality plays a part in probably half of the round tables!

Agreed and had this chat with my family when watching last night. It isn’t just the fact the first murdered and banished were black, it’s also the constant and immediate heat on Ross. I believe there are now four BAME contestants left so let’s see how it plays out for them.

It’s unconscious bias. I recall a televised social experiment a number of years ago showing this. People were given a number of targets to shoot at- some were black people, some white and they consistently shot at the black.

I watched 3 episodes of this stupid programme. One POC was part of a duo and that made them unpopular. As one contestant said there are a lot of people easily swayed and the second POC was said to have changed their behaviour after the traitors were identified. Did they? who knows, all tv programmes are edited to suit the producers narrative. Clearly the easily swayed were being swayed though - was that bias or because the person doing the swaying was the unknown traitor? We'll find out........

The mediocre white males seem to dominate and carry the power so far. Depressingly even some of the alpha women seem to be appeasing and lapping up every single word they utter. So it’s really a case of the herd following who white men prioritise and that’s: male, white-norm, if it has to a women they need to be fuckable and agreeable.

Judy was at the bottom of that list because she was black, older and unapologetically herself. It’s obvious. This is more about white patriarchal values than pure racism.

I don’t know. Hugo was the definition of mediocre white male and he got sussed pretty quickly.

This is a classic example of you see what you want to see post. Not saying you’re right not saying you’re wrong, but it’s clearly what you were looking for.

I see this is being picked up by journalists now. Not citing MN but they're discussing the issue.

I haven’t noticed anything in MSM.

I’ve seen an article this morning.

Google "Is Traitors Racist?" And there are a bunch of articles from Guardian, independent and magazines too.

God journalists really do use MN don't they?!

While it's good this is being discussed here it's hardly the first time that unconscious bias and reality TV has been discussed! There are articles dating back years discussing Strictly voting patterns, there were similar discussions all over the place during Celeb Traitors, Claudia commented on screen about the sausage fest that was the series 2 turret, there was discussion about the first series one banishment when Nicky was singled out for not lifting a glass to the faithfuls with hand she didn't have.
Players are even letting their knowledge of unconscious, or sometimes perhaps conscious bias, impact their game play. Charlotte pretending to be Welsh to appear more trustworthy, everyone who's hidden a job that suggests intelligence or strategic thinking, Fiona leaning heavily into the 'oh I'm just a little old nanna, me' schtick this year.

It was mentioned on Times Radio yesterday afternoon on the Jane & Fi programme where they were reviewing TV programmes. Jane Garvey said it was noticed in her household that the first two contestants to be voted out were Black women.