BLACK PEOPLE SHOULD STILL GO ON LOVE ISLAND…

[00:00:04]Hello everyone. Welcome or welcome back to my channel, Raven, who is also Brooke. And in today's video, I'll be talking about the black community's relationship with the show Love Island and the good, the bad, and the ugly that comes with it, and why I think black people should still go on the show. Now, don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe, and to follow me on all my social media platforms. And remember that this is my opinion. Remember to keep it respectful in the comments. All my sources used in this video will be linked down below. And I do apologize for background noise that you will probably hear in this video. I thought my mic wouldn't pick it up, but it did unfortunately. So, I apologize. But, let's just get right into the video.

[00:00:45]Now, mind you, I got my hair pressed on Friday, and today is Wednesday, and it's already pretty much in a ponytail. The humidity said, "Girl, [snorts] your hair." So, before we begin our discussion surrounding the black community and its relationship with Love Island, I first want to give a quick rundown of what Love Island is. Now, Love Island actually premiered back in the UK in 2005 and in 2006, and then in 2017, the show came back to the UK and then in 2019, Love Island premiered in the US. Now, the whole premise of Love Island is basically the strongest connection wins $100,000 at the end of the season. And the whole premise is so at first you have your OG islanders.

[00:01:30]They all try to find a connection with each other. And basically the whole show sends in bombshells where the bombshells are testing the loyalty and the connections of these couples. And then these couples later in the season split off and go to Kasa Amore. And then in Kasa Amore, they are later further tested of their loyalty toward their connections. They come out of Kasa Amore. Throughout the show, they do many challenges. Lately, they've become very questionable. And also, viewers can vote for their favorite couples and vote for the couples or people that they think should leave the show. And also, cast members can vote off people and individual as well. And America overall chooses who was the best couple and who wins the 100K. Now, the reason why I'm making this video is because recently, this past Sunday, Love Island season 8 ended where Trinity and Bryce were the winners. And I have always felt um a certain type of way more so around the fan culture and the discourse that surrounds Love Island, but mainly in the black community. I've always kind of been, you know, intrigued of how we digest the show, how we talk about the show online, our views on certain people, how we look at certain things.

[00:02:36]And, you know, I've always said, hm, this is interesting. never in a good or bad way, but just more of like just me more thinking to myself, h this is just interesting. But I don't know what it was about this season that really just solidified certain feelings that I've been having toward the discourse that we continue to have about Love Island, more specifically in the black community, and how I think it's getting very weird.

[00:03:00]It's getting very concerning on both sides. The sides I agree and disagree on. I just feel like things are getting to a point where we're forgetting that this is a reality TV dating show that is heavily edited and filmed 24 hours a day and we only see an hour of it. And today I really just wanted to break down all the ways that the black community interacts with the show and the good, bad, and ugly that I feel like I see when I see the discourse that begins to happen when talking about Love Island, especially with this season. and why I think even though there is so much BS that can surround Love Island, especially with its black contestants and why I think black people should still go on Love Island and support Love Island, even though just complete BS can surround the whole show pertaining to black contestants and its black viewers.

[00:03:51]Now, first let's talk about the casting of black people on Love Island across all franchises, but mainly focusing on the US and some of the UK across the years of Love Island. Now, I found an article back in 2018 that was talking about Love Island UK. And the article talked about how there is just a big lack of diversity surrounding the Love Island franchise and how many people were saying that this just isn't an accurate representation of how they feel dating is in the real world and that there's no way that reality TV dating show in the late 2010s can't have a diverse cast. And I would say from 2022 and beyond, Love Island has gotten better at having more diversity in their cast. And also something significant that has happened with Love Island in recent years is that there have been more black contestants that have been winning the show. There have been black couples who have won the show and black contestants individually who have won the show. And something significant is that throughout the years, there have been more black people winning the shows, including black couples. In 2020 on Love Island USA, you had Justine and Caleb who won their season. And then in 2024, which is crazy to think about, on the Love Island UK franchise, Mimi and Josh were the first black couple to win the show. And then in 2024, we had Serena and Cordell, who won in season 6 of Love Island USA. And then this season, we had Trinity, who won, who was a black woman who won with her boyfriend Bryce, who is white also. However, I would argue that after season 6, it felt like there began to be a push from Love Island to have more black contestants on the show and to honestly push the show more to black audiences. You had more black contestants who were becoming mainstream stars over their white counterparts. And most importantly, this season showed how black people moving forward would engage with the show and the conversations it began to be had.

[00:05:40]and just also how consequently how parasocial some of it seems to have gotten and also some really great things to have happened to these contestants while being on the show because of this audience. And now I want to get into season 6 just a little bit more just so we can talk about just how they cracked the code I feel like for Love Island.

[00:06:00]Now, I really don't know what it was about season 6 that to me felt like it put Love Island under a different, bigger spotlight. I really don't know what it was because before season 6, I would always see pictures of people from Love Island like on Twitter and on Instagram. And mainly, I will always see the black contestants, more specifically the black women who were on the show. I I feel like Love Island always has the most gorgeous black women on the show. I don't know what it is. Like every black woman is just always gorgeous when they're on that show. So many people would always share them. I remember the first person I would always see constantly was India. And I never even knew her name, but many people were always reposting her for like her makeup looks, like her hair, her fashion. So that's how I would say I was like indirectly introduced to Love Island. It was because of the black contestants on the show and people just sharing their pictures in general. And then it was like to see season six and I think seeing Serena and Cordell, a black couple, win the show, just ushered in a new audience to be honest and just gave them a bigger audience. That's why I was saying earlier why I really feel like Love Island started pushing itself toward a black audience just seeing the response they got from season 6. But of course, that's just a theory. And just even seeing Serena in her braids and in her grills and to see a black couple fall in love on TV, it just felt very refreshing, I think, for a lot of people at that time. And then you had season 7 where everyone was pretty much in love with Alandria and Shelly, and people would talk about their braids and their style all the time, especially with Alandria. And Shelley was also with Ace, who was a black man. Many people love their relationship and just the success that most of these black contestants have had since being off the show is out of this world because the brand deals that they have had from being on the show and the media appearances that they have had from the show is insane to think about. Especially brand deals and media appearances from black companies.

[00:07:59]But with all this success just came with so much BS. And I'm going to keep calling it BS because again, we're talking about a reality TV dating show where we do not know these people. Like, we do not know them from anywhere. We know they're from a show where we saw them for an hour outside of 24 hours.

[00:08:18]Think about that. Of edited footage to where people just became these very I rate parasocial people. people who don't know how to just have a rational objective conversation no matter who you agree or disagree with without the conversation turning left and turning ugly and turning mean to where now you're stepping into personal bounds like so many bad things have come out of it unfortunately negative things have come out of it as well however with all this mainstream success that these black contestants from Love Island were getting it also came with a big price and that big price was having an unhealthy relationship with viewers of how they view these black contestants and how damn near it can make it seem like is it even worth it to go on the show. Now, before I get further into the good and ugly that I see from the show, I want to talk about the things I observed myself with the interactions that I see the black community having with the show, more specifically with its black contestants. Now, one thing I have noticed is just how we talk about these contestants before they even get on the show. Meaning that when we see the casting photos, we're already pretty much picking people apart, either praising them, giving them hell. Even before we even hear their voice on the show, we understand their personality.

[00:09:29]We are already pretty much giving our two cents again, whether positive or negative, about this person. And one thing that I realized is that many people really do hold some of these contestants near and dear to their heart. They will go to hell and back for this person online. people even like it was crazy to think about how even before the show started this season people were already making fan pages like people really hold these people dear to their heart because we are pretty much seeing the reality of this dating world in real time 5 days a week for an hour. So it's not necessarily hard to believe that there would be people who form these parasocial relationships with these contestants. It's just weird. And because these people hold them so close to their chest even though they've never met them. Like I said, they would go to bat for them. Even if that means going on Twitter, going on five tweet long paragraph rant about how this person has wronged the person you love or they're going to even make a YouTube video just falling on the sword for this person and going to bed. And it's just like I said, girl, I don't know these people. I don't know them. I'm not doing all that. I'm not. When it comes to the people that they love, their love for them and their fandom for them can literally turn them into household names and make them into pretty much reality TV stars overnight. I also have observed just people's love of seeing black people in love, whether it's with each other or just seeing them fall in love in general, especially when it comes to black women. But people mostly prefer this with the black man. And after listing all the ways that I have observed how people interact with this show, I saw how really there is an ugly and beautiful side to every point. And now I want to use this next section to go into the ugly and the beautiful things that I see with our interactions in the show. And I just want to say that I will be talking about this season more particularly with two people, Casey and Annia, because I feel like the discourse surrounding them was just so like my gosh. And I'm not going to lie, and I'm just going to get this out the way now.

[00:11:34]I am not a Casey defender. I am not a Casey defender when it comes to the situation with Annayia and Casey. I am on Anna's side. I absolutely am. But in this video, there will be times where I am on Casey's side more in terms of how people have been responding to him. Not because again, I agree with him in this situation with the Nia. I didn't based on what I've seen on TV. And that's something that I feel like we need to start saying more based on what we've seen on TV. Now, based on what I've seen on TV, I love her and Carl together. I don't know, y'all. I love them together.

[00:12:07]Love it. And of course, I love Trinity and Bryce, too. Like Bryce, based on what I've seen on TV, he gives that he he's obsessed with her and I like that for her. And I love Trinity that she gives. Now, let's talk about the beautiful things first. Let's talk about the positive things first. Right now, one positive thing, like I said earlier, is just the brand deals and the exposure and the fame that these black contestants get when they leave the show. It's very insane to think how almost to big celebrities, these contestants were celebrities to them.

[00:12:40]Like, they're fangirling out over them.

[00:12:42]They're talking about them all the time on their Instagram stories, talking about the show, who they love. And it's very nice to see. It's very nice to see black people on reality TV reach amazing heights just like these white contestants do. Serena and Cordell, for example, became household names when they left that villa. They're appearing on magazine covers. They're appearing in music videos. They were having big brand deals. They and still are like to this day. It's 2026. They appeared on Love Island 2024. They are still everywhere.

[00:13:10]It feels like Alandria has pretty much stamped her name in the fashion world.

[00:13:15]like she is really making her mark in mainstream media right now. She appeared on Horn Harper's Belzar, I hope I said that right, on the Vietnam cover. She appeared on Sports Illustrated. She is always being talked about in articles, always being invited to big events in a big award shows just like Serena and Cordell. And then you also had other black contestants like Jana who has appeared in music videos and big brand deals. And then you also had Shelly. And you also had Shelly who was interviewing people on a red carpet for a billboard.

[00:13:43]And like I talked about earlier, it's a very refreshing thing to just see black people, especially black people in reality TV, thrive so much because there is a phrase where people love to say that people are famous for no reason.

[00:13:53]Mostly toward reality TV stars. That's where it started and then it started going toward influencers. But that whole concept started with reality TV stars.

[00:14:00]It's something that the Kardashians always get flack for because they are pretty much famous for doing nothing really but being on reality TV show and among other things. But people are always like, "We want to see more black people like that. people who are just famous to be famous, people who are famous for being on reality TV. Like, why can't we see more of that? And I feel like that's the feeling that Love Island is giving us, that hey, there is actually a lot of room for us in this space to be here and to be just as famous as our white counterparts. And going into the concept of black love, like I talked about earlier, just seeing that on TV, on a really big show like Love Island, means a lot to a lot of people, especially because over the past few years, there has been a very big push to see more black love in mainstream media, including TV shows, whether scripted or non-scripted, and in movies. Now, there of course have been many articles and videos about this discussion of black love and seeing it in the media, especially a black couple, a black man and a black woman together.

[00:14:58]Because, for example, this season, in the beginning, many people were rooting for Casey and Annayia. Like I'm 95% sure if Casey had not moved the way he moved and done the things that he had done and said the things that he had said, they would have won this season. If their connection had grew strong and they actually, you know, had something with each other, they would have won this season. You can't convince me otherwise.

[00:15:21]Everyone was rooting for them. Everyone wanted them to win. And then there's the aspect of black women more specifically finding love in reality TV and being love interest in TV shows and in movies.

[00:15:34]And even speaking on black women being love interest in TV shows and movies, there's always been a lot of criticisms of our portrayal because often we're seen as a placeholder mostly sometimes for a non-black character to then get back together with their non-black partner. Or we are seen as maybe the crazy ex-girlfriend, the girlfriend who did too much. And I actually just saw a video recently from the channel Tron. He actually talked about Dan Schneider shows and how he portrayed black women.

[00:16:01]It was actually a very good video and I'm actually a big fan of most of his videos. But to see us falling in love on TV in any form is not only a beautiful thing to see, but sometimes can feel rare and that's very sad to say in 2026, but sometimes it feels rare to just see us in healthy relationships that are being portrayed to an audience to digest. And you have to think about specifically when it comes to black women. Women mostly make up the audience of Love Island. I would probably even argue that black women make up a huge chunk of the audience who watches it. So of course we want to see love. We want to see us be in love. And also you got to think about how the country already sees us as bottom of the barrel. The black woman is the most disrespected person in this country. So we need to see us be happy and flourishing. And to an extent, to a longass extent, I do think that it is good when we do have conversations surrounding dating, especially in the black community. I think that it is important to see many different perspectives, again, even the ones that you don't agree with and that you probably will never do in a relationship. I do think that it's important for us to see these opinions.

[00:17:11]And I do think it's very interesting to just see the different ways that we think when we're in a relationship based off of our opinions of seeing these contestants on the show navigate through their relationships and even their friendships because recently I was just at someone's house where they were watching After Sun and Love Island and we were discussing the show and even though we had different opinions about people it still felt nice to just have a objective neutral toned conversation no matter who side you were on. I do think that it is possible when we disagree or agree with these contestants to have mature forwardthinking conversations and just for the future of Love Island. I love how our interactions with the show has made people very successful and it sets up more black contestants who come on the show to become successful after the show. Whether it's them even necessarily gaining fame per se or because they really wanted to find love on the show. But with all these beautiful things that I just listed, and there's many more that I hadn't even thought of because there's so much nuance to Love Island. But with all these things that I just described, there is that very ugly side to it that, like I said, makes you question as a black person, would I even want to go on the show? Would I want to expose myself to people who genuinely make you look at them like, "Are you cool? Like, are you okay?" Now, like I mentioned earlier, there is already dialogue about this cast before the show even starts, before we even really hear their voice. And with this season, I want to use the example of Annayia because Annayia was already pretty much being picked apart before the show even started mainly because of her casting photo and people were talking about her looks and her hair. But even when she got on the show and seeing the conversations around her hair and her wig and first of all, I love the curly hair. And to see the conversation surrounding her hair, to see the conversation surrounding Trinity's hair, especially with Anna because her hair was natural and many people were talking about how oh my god, when she sat up, it was sticking up. And I'm like, yeah, natural hair does that Trust me. People were trying to police her, telling her what hairstyle she should have worn. It was just I didn't like it. I did not like it. I did not. And even think about Alandria last season, just seeing people in the black community and even black women, that was very disturbing to see black women come for Alandria's looks last year, like I remember that vividly. I saw some of y'all in 4K talking crazy about that girl. And to move on to my next point, while yes, it is great that we are having conversations surrounding Love Island and that when having these conversations correctly, it can open up interesting forwardthinking dialogue on things including what people tolerate in relationships, how people communicate with each other in relationships, especially when they're having a disagreement or even dating multiple people at the same time. Just many different conversations around dating.

[00:19:58]Yes, they can be open and sometimes they can be great conversations. But with these conversations, I feel like many people are forgetting that there are 7 billion people out in this world. We are not all one monolith. There are certain things about relationships that I see that I'm like could never be me. But as long as you are not being emotionally or physically harmed, I really don't give a it has nothing to do with me. It's lowkey a reason why, and this is a side tangent, why I don't really like people who call themselves relationship gurus or advisers or experts, because they're always mainly telling people what to do in relationships rather than finding out what that couple individually wants and what their needs are. That can make their individual relationship successful regardless of how people would see it, you know. And that can apply to talking about, you know, the timing of being official with someone saying like, "Yeah, this is my girlfriend or boyfriend. Yeah, this is my official partner. How fast you want to be physical with someone in relationship, that's always a conversation people love to have. And that's something where it's like it's up to the individual. If it's consent, it's none of our business. If it worked for them, it worked for them.

[00:21:01]And even again, whether or not you're okay with someone dating other people until you know you feel like you and that person are solidified or do you just want to be exclusively dating them until you're official? And what gets lost in the sauce and what makes it so ugly and what I alluded to earlier is just how ugly these conversations can get and how they get steered in a direction where a true conversation gets lost in the sauce because now we're hitting below the belt because now we're hitting personal. And before I get into this next point, I want to reiterate again, I am not a KC defender when it comes to the situation with Annayia. I feel like he just wasn't honest and he should have stood on how he felt and he would have done that and none of the heat that he got and is still getting wouldn't have happened and I will defend that and that's my biasness. However, when it comes to both Casey and Annayia, I feel like on both sides and honestly more on Annayia's side, I feel like on both sides the true conversation got lost in the sauce to where everyone is hurling just disgusting insults to each other. Like when it comes to Casey Defenders to Annayia, the way that some people are like borderline angry at this girl, making pictures of her where they're changing her features so she can be unattractive, calling her a laughing at her while she's crying, just wishing ill will on her in her relationship. It's getting weird. And with KC, I was going to make this point later, but I think I'm going to actually make it now. with KC. Again, like I said, I I I can't stand by how he moved in a nice situation, and I won't. But when it came to the conversations around maybe why him and Anna aren't a good match for each other, and I don't think they were a good match for each other at all at the end of the day when it came down to it. But when it came to the socioeconomic differences that they had, I do feel like at the beginning of that conversation, there was mature unbiased dialogue happening that did point out good points that you know realistically when you are dating someone who comes from a different economic status as you whether it's someone upper class dating a middle class person or a middle class person dating someone who is lowerass like there's going to be differences obviously. However, when it came to Casey, people were calling him Hood, making it seem like because he is, first of all, Casey is not Hood. First of all, he is from Fresno, California. If you look up the stats of Fresno, usually the median household income is around 70,000. I know 70,000 isn't the most, but 70,000 is pretty good considering this goddamn economy. Casey gives a middle class black man to me. But to see people almost hurl these insulting things about him because of their perceived notion of his economic status was disgusting. It was a leotist, y'all.

[00:23:48]It was giving um classes. And like I said, this actually can be a great conversation to have. I'm not saying the conversation doesn't need to be had, but just the way people went about it, it just it ruined it. It ruined it for everybody. Also, when it comes to Annayia and her economic status, a lot of people then began to assume that she was a whitewashed quote unquote suburban black girl. And again, that's insulting to her because on the show, she didn't give anything related to that of the sorts. Nothing about her gave that she was whitewashed. So again, on both Casey and Annayia's side, y'all just started taking it way too far. And the crazy thing is when it comes to Casey and even Corbin and Sincere and the conversations that can be had around them, especially with when you would hear them talking, how low-key they would kind of have these red pill incel ideologies or at least they would say things that would make you look at them and be like, either you're becoming something or you already are. It's something's happening here. You know what I'm saying? I feel like those were actual good conversations to have and I feel like again people were having them and they were actually unbiased and mature great conversations but again it just got lost in the sauce because we started hitting below the belt and it just got weird.

[00:25:02]got weird. Also I didn't like how people were putting Titi's face on like a man's body and just pitting her out to be this aggressive person calling her out her name because she did get into with some of the OG Islanders. Now, do I think that she should have handled the situation in a different way?

[00:25:20]Absolutely. And was I a big fan of her approach? Absolutely not. But to sit here and just call her all these names and to equate her to a man, it's just literally not that serious. I feel like people forget it's very easy to critique what someone is doing and to not like it and again to not just take too far.

[00:25:41]And I'm not going to lie, I do think that because people are biased toward Anniah and Casey. And again, I'm sorry y'all, especially Casey, the defenders, they're kind of worse than the Annia defenders. Sorry. How they're trying to start serious and I use quotation marks because that is not serious. They just made that up. Like, like they're making up scenarios that are actually true but don't apply to them because that is their fave and they just want to excuse the actions that they done. Again, especially Casey. But it's just all becoming a joke. It's all getting jumbled and I just don't like it. It's making what actual healthy dialogue that can come from the show become a joke. We're losing the plot.

[00:26:20]Basically, it's the literal definition to me of losing the plot. Or they maybe have just a deep for some odd reason like a hatred for someone or high disdain for someone on that show. The way they even talk to them or talk about them when they feel like they're in the wrong is insane. It's against it's scary and it's like we dead ass had to think about we do not know these people and we are seeing only an hour of edited footage where they are being shot 24 hours a day. We are only seeing an hour of edited footage and the way people literally almost lose their mind about to damn near just go ballistic on the timeline on YouTube wherever about these contestants when they do something they don't like is absolutely insane to me.

[00:27:02]The two things that I immediately think of are when movie night happened and Annayia got mad at Casey and got in his face and then after that episode they didn't show the aftermath of that and that night like people were I felt bad for Annayia. I said, "Oh my god, girl." Like people were dragging her left and right just for her the next episode to apologize. And that's something people aren't thinking about.

[00:27:27]We're not seeing the aftermath yet. This show airs 5 days a week, sometimes 3 days back to back. We don't know the outcome yet. We don't know what's going to happen because usually the episodes aren't like it's not like an episode happens in a traditional 1 hour episode that comes out a week where it's kind of like a conflict and a resolution to the episode and like a certain story line in the episode, not like a story line that stretches all season. So, it's like we forget that we don't know the outcome yet. you're dragging this girl and she apologized just like when people were dragging Trinity seemingly not being supportive of Kada being exclusive with Zach just for her the next episode to apologize even to be on Casey's side.

[00:28:03]Did he mean this or not? We don't know.

[00:28:05]But Casey did end up apologizing to Annayia about the things that he said and did. And people again were dragging him like and calling him everything but a child of God. And that's something that we're forgetting when we're interacting with the show. We don't really know these people for one to drag them so damn hard to where it feels like some people dead ass have hatred for them. And we had to think about we are watching people in their early to mid20s date. What the hell do you expect? Of course you're going to have your little sprinkle of people who are in their late 20s in the 30s. Like I think Bryce is 30. We're seeing majority of people in their early to mid20s date. I don't know why the hell y'all expect all this damn maturity and not some messy drama to happen. What are you expecting? And then to see people in their early in their 30s literally almost pop a blood vessel because they just can't stand these people in their early 20s just be immature in dating. Again, what do you expect? I look at my early 20s cuz you know I'm 25 so I just hit my mid 20s.

[00:29:01]But even I look at my early 20s and I'm like girl y'all would have saw me on Love Island.

[00:29:07][laughter] Y'all would have been dragging me from here all the way in Georgia, all the way to California, just for being stupid.

[00:29:15]Y'all would have been pissed at me just for continuously being stupid, being immature. So, I don't know what y'all are expecting. Like, y'all are doing too much. Now, with this one, this may be a little doozy, a little controversial, maybe. I don't know. We'll see. I don't know. Maybe I'm thinking too much into it. But I think that with our interaction with the show and it when it comes to us wanting to see more black love, more specifically with a black woman and a black man, I do think that it is a little unrealistic to expect that from reality TV dating shows from white corporations to have enough diversity on the cast to where there is a more probability that a black person will choose the other black person. Now, that's also not to say it depends on the black person also. Because when it comes to interracial dating, I am someone where I don't care if you marry someone outside of your race if you're black.

[00:30:05]Where everything starts to just get very much like we need to take away loving versus Virginia is when people start becoming is when a black person in that interracial relationship becomes so hateful toward other black people and start being on some like RG3 type stuff and just start making these weird jokes and almost fetishizing their relationship. That's when I'm like, it's getting weird and I don't like it. And something that Rachel Lindsay said, who was the first black Bachelorette while she was on her season and talking about her experience, she said, "I got so much backlash for picking Brian, who is Colombian, even though I knew my decision and I knew I made the right decision. For black viewers who want to see our kind of love prevail on these whitewashed shows, it feels like an unfair ass to dictate who people should fall in love with. Counting on them to stick with our people because the system for reality dating shows was never designed with this in mind. So, unfortunately, the outcome will never be exactly what we want it to be. And that's like I said earlier, I just feel like it's unrealistic. And of course, reality TV dating shows should do this, but unfortunately, it's just not the reality. They don't cast a lot of diversity most of the time. And of course, we want to see black love prevail. And I'm not saying that's something we shouldn't want to see. I would love to see it. It's not the case.

[00:31:14]And I do wish that there were more black, like all black reality TV dating shows. It's just unfortunately I just don't feel like these networks even want to invest into it in the first place.

[00:31:27]Because even I think about Pop the Balloon that started on YouTube from a black couple and a black woman host a show and then when Netflix got a hold of it, it just felt very whitewashed and it just kind of sucked the fun out of that.

[00:31:41]So, I definitely do wish that in today's current world, there were more reality TV dating shows with an all black cast.

[00:31:49]And then I think of Jana and Kenny and the situation that happened with that.

[00:31:54]And I feel like because people were already kind of like not feeling Jana being in a relationship with someone who wasn't black and also because even the ones who did support her, I feel like low key in the back of their mind, they were looking for a gotcha moment.

[00:32:11]Because when the situation happened where basically it was found out that Kenny was being very racist toward Janae and saying very disparaging things about her being a black woman, the conversation shifted from this man who was racist, was in a relationship with a black woman. It moved on from the horror of that and the repercussions of that to almost people rubbing it in Jana's face that she got played by someone who wasn't black and that's why she should have dated a black man. Like even with Annayia and Carl and Trinity and Bryce, it's disgusting to see people want their relationship to fail because they aren't with a black man. That's not No. What are we doing? What are we doing? Also, I do want to highlight just how the media for one has treated black contestants, more specifically the black women, is absolutely crazy. And they definitely play a huge part as to why black contestants do receive the harassment they do. The first thing that comes to mind is when BuzzFeed made that article talking about Shelly needs a knuckle sandwich. What? And then also, I cannot find it, but Variety, I feel like it was this year put out some type of article about Love Island season 6. And they said some very questionable things about Serena, and I wish I can find it, but I really can't. If someone remembers it, please comment it down below. It may not have been Variety. It may have been another publication, but I absolutely do look at the media and put a lot of blame on them. And also, the racism that these contestants face is actually disgusting.

[00:33:42]Even thinking about how Alandria and both Annayia, their face was edited onto pictures of George Floyd while he was being People just take things to a disgusting place all the time. And it's very sad to see the racism that these contestants do face. But with all the ugly that I just stated, the very serious ugliness that comes with black contestants being on this show, I still feel like black people should go on Love Island and should go on reality TV dating shows because for one, we deserve to just be on TV and to just exist and to not have these high ass expectations placed on us to be perfect people because we're human at the end of the day. I really just want to see us be people. Be people who make mistakes. Be people who we end up loving or disliking. being a reality TV show villain. Like, we deserve to have it just like the whites, just like them. I think it is great to see black people with multiple personalities come from multiple backgrounds, to show depth and complexities to us, to dismantle these stereotypes that people have of us, mainly because of the mainstream media.

[00:34:46]It's just very refreshing to see us in many different facets. We deserve to see each other fall in love on television.

[00:34:54]No matter who the race is, as long as they aren't on some, you know, RG3, Clarence Thomas type stuff. I would love to see us be in love. I really would on a mainstream scale. We deserve to keep seeing black reality TV stars make household names for themselves, to see other celebrities fangirling over them.

[00:35:13]We deserve to see them with big brand deals to appear in mainstream media appearances. We need to see that. But in order to do all of that, we had to be able to have unbiased, realistic, unparalle relationships and conversations surrounding black people who go on Love Island and other reality TV dating shows. And whether you love them or hate them, we have to stop just holding things so personally toward people that we literally do not know. We have to start being able to have actual real conversations that can stem from these shows with black contestants without it going too far and just hitting below the belt to now we're just personally attacking people. That just takes away the whole purpose of the actual serious conversation we could be having. And I don't mean just making anything up or just acting like something is serious when it's not even a real issue just because you have a favorite on the show. Cuz at the end of the day, I want to see us win. I want to see more of us on Love Island. And I want to see more of us on this reality TV dating show succeeding. We just got to get out of the mindset that we almost own these people and we're allowed to just say any and everything about them.

[00:36:17]We're allowed to disrespect them because at the end of it all, we deserve to be successful, too. We deserve to find love on these shows. We just got to start looking into ourselves a little bit more and just not have such a parasocial relationship with these people and start understanding that they are human.

[00:36:31]They're going to make mistakes. And this is a reality TV show that is edited down to an hour out of 24 hours a day. Let's not lose the plot here, people. Please, let's not. And thank you for coming to my TED talk. Thank you guys so much for watching today's video. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe. And I would love to hear your opinion down below in the comments. Remember to keep it respectful, and remember to always keep life cute, fab, and fun. And I will see you guys in the next