The Traitors is both racist & ageist?

[TrademarkBrooklynBeckham]

I’ve been saying this for some time, and now the Times has analyzed the data.

Are The Traitors players prejudiced? Here’s what the data says:

https://www.thetimes.com/article/20eccb12-a919-4d59-8ce5-1e9925f9e948?shareToken=3e4f0566057b480a152802f21f97c26c

Spoiler alert - all white winners and just one non white person in the finals of the UK general traitors show.

YABU - It’s an evidence based show. Nothing to see here.
YANBU - The players are displaying unconscious bias against race, sex & age

Maybe, just maybe Judy, who was voted off first, was really annoying. It is possible to be a POC and annoying without it being racist.
I do think some people get voted off because other contestants find them irritating. If I was on Traitors I'd definitely vote off the people who irritated me first.

I had not thought about the Traitors this way, though I really think the viewing public of Big Brother are definitely, overtly racist; if there is one black person up for eviction, they'll get it over any annoying white person.

I have only watched The Traitors this year and last, but have seen people of colour get quite far in the process - Mina, Cat Burns, plus Roxie, Faraaz and Jade this year - so I don't think there is much grounds for declaring racism. As for unconscious bias of race, age, weight, height, accent, who could say without an indepth study?

..... can be interpreted in different ways and be presented to support whatever narrative you prefer.

Anyway, the numbers of people involved in Traitors can hardly be considered to be a statistically significant sample.

I am extremely cynical about these kinds of shows and think they are very much a cast rather than contestants. So I always find that the older people are very much cast as older and will be slightly dotty or eccentric and that is where the prejudice is. I wonder if someone in the armed forces will win again?

That is a good point and I would certainly believe that of Fiona who was the oldest looking and acting 62 year old I've ever seen. And she was all about the drama to boot.

You dont think the behaviour of the two older women in this series had any bearing on their being voted out? You know, when they went completely mad?

The numbers of players involved to date are very unlikely to be a statistical significant sample given all the other factors at play.

What about when Traitors Oz, NZ and US are taken into account?

They were cast because they were both slightly mad. It was what was expected of them.I am explaining that the prejudice is in the casting in the first place . I think the only older woman I have ever related to on these type of shows recently was Louise Moore who was a judge on a Channel 4 cooking show. Most older women are kinda badass in my world not dotty.

This is a reply to shedmistress.

I dont see how it cant be unconscious bias. I really dont

Amanda wasn’t eccentric or mad. She went fairly early.
Ben wasn’t mad. He went early

Maz is unfortunately in the old and ethnic minority category. Totally normal and yet he got the boot

this applies to loads of shows, not just traitors

Amanda was cast in a different category. You haven’t grasped the by numbers casting of these shows.

Approx 82% of the British population are white, this was reflected in the 22 who started the show. Roxy is still in so still the numbers are reflecting the overall population. I’d say that’s very fair tbh

yes, and if you think of it strictly in terms of demographical representation, the UK has a much higher percentage of overweight, or even obese people, than non-white, same with over 50s.

Not to mention, often the people murdered are the most popular/believed to be the most faithful - the traitors murder them specifically because they know they're not going to ever be banished - like the older lady (Margaret?), Fay and Amos from S1, So if there is a bias it could be a positive one rather than unconsciously thinking black people aren't trustworthy, or whatever!

You could draw parallels about absolutely everything if you tried hard enough. In these last 2 series where tasks have involved picking teams/playing for individuals, it has been 2 white men that were the ones not chosen (Jack last series and Sam this one).

If you look at the contestants for Traitors Russia/India/South Korea, it really doesn't seem like their producers are angsting about having a wide variety of ethnically diverse contestants! That is absolutely not to say we shouldn't have that - I agree that one of the best things about the Traitors is the way it includes such a wide variety of people, particularly in relation to disability, and fully agree that this series really suffered from 'excess of interchangeable homogenous white male 30 somethings'

I just think it would be a shame if the producers did anything to influence this, or focussed too hard on the easiest type of diversity (in that, unlike disabled or older people, race won't mean they have to adapt the challenges etc) to avoid stupid accusations of prejudice like this, rather than just going for the best contestants.

not to mention OP, you are self-selecting statistics that prove your point.

e.g. "and just one non white person in the finals of the UK general traitors show."

But why just focus on the 'general' show. What difference does being a celebrity make to ethnicity in the finalists?

And who gets to decide what 'counts' as non-white? Like pps I assumed Wilf in S1 had ethnically diverse heritage - you can't always guess someone's ancestry from their appearance! These twins for example, The black and white twins born to mixed race parents | ITV News Central

They should do a series of just MILs, just for you!

I strongly believe there’s an age bias in The Traitors. There’s a good online article about it which explains this unconscious bias pretty well: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/the-traitors-age-problem-contestants-banished-murdered-harriet-142334036.html I think it’s sad that the younger ones, very likely completely unconsciously, are getting rid of the older players instead of actively trying to bond with someone outside their own age bracket. Also, why do we all need to know how old the players are? We’re not given their surnames, why give away their ages? I find that very ageist. There’s companies who don’t ask for age anymore during recruitment because it is ageist. I think BBC should follow suit and stop showing the ages of the players, so that we can judge them purely on their game play.

What i get from this argument is unless a person of colour wins , it will be of their colour rather than their abilitlies. That is not a satifactory way to play this game is it......

I don't know about Traitors, but I can't help but notice that quite often on reality TV shows, the people of color get voted off first.

Thats notbthecargument. Statistically Black people are more likely to be voted off reality shows first. So its not about not winning, its about people making first judgments about people more harshly if you are Black. If they manage to get through the first few rounds it evens out.

No because this is a white majority country. It’s the same as Nigeria for example - black and non-black.

Yet here we are where the final 4 consisted of a woman, two gay men and a Muslim. Looks pretty diverse to me.

Jack isn't gay?