| Years: | 20 | |
| Ethnic: | Nicaraguan | |
| My body type: | My figure features is strong | |
| I prefer to drink: | Ale | |
| I prefer to listen: | Opera | |
| My hobbies: | Doing puzzles |
For black women, the issue will be all-too familiar.
Viewers have long complained that they are fed up with the conveyor belt of white women on the show. Yet her casting has only thrown into focus the struggles black women face when dating. Unlike other shows, where diversity woes can simply be redressed by recasting, Love Island is complicated.
The show has been praised for its unfiltered portrayal of the dark side of dating — from ghosting and gaslighting to toxic masculinity and relationships. But there is another reality the show has brought to the fore.
When Wes, like most of the black or mixed-raced male contestants before him, professed to liking blondes and brunettes, viewers hardly flinched. This is not exclusively a TV issue — it is simply an issue TV brings to light.
On the US dating show The Bachelor, black women were ditched early so often that producers took to casting a black Bachelorette in That way, whatever the outcome, the black woman would leave with a match.
Samira may be coupled up for now, but Love Island would need a script flip of epic proportions to ensure black women were not consistently sidelined from the show and, in doing so, remove the prejudice of the real world from reality TV.
Shortcuts Women. Single black female: Love Island and the problem with race and dating. Yomi Adegoke.
Tue 26 Jun Reuse this content.
