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?

Agree. If the population was predominantly black, then it would be the exact same situation. Black people would mostly vote for black contestants. Let’s not kid ourselves here….The same with the sexes. It’s been widely proven that men especially will mostly gravitate to voting for men in any sort of contest.

Recall in the celebrity one how Mark Bonnar was on to Tameka like a rabid dog for no reason other than he noticed a change in her behaviour in the early coffin episode.
I knew that a PoC, particularly a woman, was likely to go early doors and bet my daughter it would happen. Didn’t expect there to be 2 though.
It’s probably more likely to happen early doors when people have little evidence to actually go off so their natural instincts and biases rather than rational thought influence their choices. You’d expect the latter to dominate selection as the game goes on though.
However, I’ll throw this in, for CT I reckon that Nick ignored his normal rational, analytical brain at the end and allowed his bias against the non intellectual Joe and toward the academic (though hapless) David to prevail.

Totally agree

I had her on the list initially but did a quick fact check and apparently she was 'only' in two. Two more than she should have been, obviously.

I agree that the unconscious bias towards suspecting black and brown people is plainly apparent. Not any individual's fault but the way we are conditioned to accept a confident white male coded way of doing things as the best, most trustworthy, more authoritative way.

I think there's another bias in the programme makers as well when they look for drama - that gay men are culturally supposed to be volatile, dramatic, sneaky, emotional - lots of things encoded as untrustworthy yet exciting, as they are more feminine or subversive traits. Therefore the programme makers put them into roles like Traitor as there's an unconscious sense they will play to those stereotypes.

Irish traitors, population predominantly white, two of the three finalists were black Women.

📢 Spoilt Brat Alert ⚠️

I think this is complex. There is according to statistical checks that have been done, a bigger risk of being voted out early/in strictly dance-off if you’re an ethnic minority, and also if you’re female. But as a pp said they’re not all picked off and are not hugely under-represented in finals/as winners.

E.g. 4 out of 23 strictly winners have been ethnic minority which almost exactly reflects the uk population. Women 10 out of 23 so somewhat under-represented.

But another thing is that ethnic minorities are usually over-represented at the start. Traitors this series, almost 30%, celeb traitors over 25%, strictly 20% - uk percentage is 17%. Gay people tend to be even more over-represented. Most recent bake-off, a third ethnic minority and a third gay. (There are probably various reasons for that eg producers going for over-representation rather than risk under-representing minorities, and/or to try to counteract prejudice, and with celeb things, black and gay people are well represented in some areas of entertainment, sports, music etc.) (Though NB love island is a major exception to all this.) So that increases these groups’ likelihood of being both voted off and doing well, compared to their prevalence in the general population.

I wonder if the “tribal”/biased voting for your own ethnicity effect PPs have mentioned is more pronounced at the beginning, before everyone gets to know the contestants better, and then it recedes.

I liked Judy but like a pp I suspected her of being the secret traitor, but I also suspected Fiona, based on behaviour, facial expressions etc.

People are following a person they have been conditioned to follow- and that person when playing a game identifies easiest targets to banish I.e the one with the least support. It happened in the Celeb traitors with the outspoken disabled contestants.
Race will always play into it, as will sex.

All that unconscious “HR” training is bullshit because it’s a normal part of being human to identifiy why a person is different from you.

but then that rigs the game ?

Interesting were they the only POC in the show?

all people are different in one way or another, if its playing to survive etc plus if you make any alteration's then surly thats rigging the game and then makes it unfair ? bottom line it should be who is the better player @Jimpson

It's so odd how racist people are in the UK when it's been so diverse for so much longer than some countries in Europe.

They always attack a black woman at the start saying she's different to when she entered- it was the same on thr celeb version !

2 black women out first and now Ross who's black too. Pure racism.

In contrast, 2 irish black women won Irish traitors last year.

overall even if the game seems unfair then its part and parcel of the game,

DH wondered if black constants tend to go earlier than expected on I’m a Celebrity too. There are a couple of more successful contestants but not many I don’t think.

The Traitors is relatively unique among these sorts of game shows in that there’s no public vote and it’s the contestants themselves who decide who stays and who goes. It would be interesting to see whether putting contestants through some intensive unconscious bias training before the show would make a difference. But any ‘protections’ at voting stage would only backfire in terms of the public reaction - they would hugely intensify the online abuse that contestants of colour already get - and would come across as rather patronising. And I have no idea what can be done about public voting shows.

Everyone is judging everyone - on whether they appear to be a traitor or a faithful, their behaviour, are they acting guilty? Social dynamics. That's the game. I thought Netty was obviously a faithful (so easy pickings for the traitors) and Judy seemed really suspicious, her behaviour was reserved and off, thats how she was portrayed..I didn't really think about skin colour when I was forming these opinions watching the show..I was looking at personality and thinking about whether or not they were hiding something and how they would act if so. I find it weird that people are bringing race up as an agenda on this one

Howling at all the people upset and pissed off at the spoiler. 😂

If you’re not up to date with a TV show then don’t read a thread about it.

But re: black/BAME contestants being voted out first- I put it down to unconscious bias.

Minah went under the radar for a while last year, so not sure it’s all black women. Maybe black older women but same happens on many shows. Clearly unconscious bias.

Dear oh deary me, OP. Get over yourself and enjoy the show fhs! Next up we’ll have whining about why 2 women have been the first to get the chop, or why 2 of the T’s are men, or heaven forbid AI may even pass comment on the number of contestants with darkish skin colour in the group relative to the proprtion of folks with darkish skin colour in the general population. Just enjoy the show.

This is an interesting debate.
In all honesty my initial thoughts were Judy is a traitor. Why? Because when Claudia said ‘Tailors’ Judy did turn and look straight at her, the same as Linda had previously done.
Then when Judy later said she slept fine and wasn’t worried at the thought of being eliminated, I changed my mind. I do not think a traitor would say that. I also started to really like Judy and was routing for her.
I absolutely do believe there is herd mentality and unconscious bias at play. My dd told me after series one if I went on the show that I would be voted off as I’m an older female and it’s true.
If you look into this there are countless examples of white men being held in higher esteem than any other section of society.
Emails where the exact same text has been written but signed off with a female name draw far more criticism.
At work, if I come across all smiley and ‘feminine’ I get compliments. The only time I get complaints are when I’m more ‘masculine’ and straight talking. The clients get all arsey but cannot give one single example of why they felt the need to deem me rude. It’s bloody obvious why!
I would like to see a few young white men banished/murdered. Plus the smug Hugo.
I think Rachel is excellent, very, very astute.
I also think Roxy needs to be careful as she could be next for the chop.

If I was a traitor and especially if I was the secret traitor I'd definitely use unconscious bias to my advantage - it'd be an easy way to get rid of a few faithfuls.

Black people and old women first, well it's a shame but fuck 'em, I want the hundred grand.

😂😂😂😂
Harsh but honest.

As I recall, Alexandre Burke was a strong dancer, but ended up in the dance off numerous times. I remember Shirley Ballas commenting it was unfair

And how many times was Balvinder in the dance off!