Strictly is "racist" according to the guardian (SPOILERS FOR THE WINNERS!)

[LOL The Irony]

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/dec/17/strictly-come-dancing-and-racial-prejudice

I’m a huge Strictly fan and, although I was happy to see Joe McFadden win this year, I would have been equally happy to see the breathtakingly brilliant Alexandra Burke get her hands on the coveted glitterball trophy. I therefore read with interest your article (Strictly’s Burke the latest black contestant to fall foul of harsh reality TV, 16 December), which suggested your research had indicated that BAME (and particularly female BAME) contestants were far more likely to leave the show early.

This may well have been the case so far, but strictly speaking (if you’ll forgive the pun) the statistics don’t really allow us to say with any certainty yet that it was all down to their ethnicity or their sex. We’d have to have more contests – and therefore more contestants – to get truly convincing proof of that. We’d also have to control for all the other factors that might make a difference to a contestant’s success: for instance, athleticism, fame and, like this year’s winner, being a popular cast member in a long-running soap opera.

I'm no fan of strictly but this is ridiculous. There is no way anyone could give an educated response to this.

 

[trash80]

Judging by friends who watch that nonsense Burke was not liked as much because she was seen as already being a professional dancer

 

[AlterEgo]

How is it “according to the Guardian” when these are readers’ letters and emails?

 

[Domh245]

How is it “according to the Guardian” when these are readers’ letters and emails?

Because there was an article about it that the letters are responding to, itself seemingly based on some analysis from their opinion section last year (hyperlinked within)

Alexandra Burke and the trouble with reality TV and race

Few contestants have dominated the Strictly Come Dancing dancefloor like Alexandra Burke has this year. She received the first 10 of the season for her jive to Tina Turner’s Proud Mary, performed a flawless, Mary Poppins-themed charleston and impressed the judges with her salsa and her Viennese waltz.

Despite her technical brilliance, Burke has found herself repeatedly in the bottom two – as voted for by the British public. And some observers have perceived a contempt for her, from both the media and the public, that is unlike anything directed towards her fellow contestants.

This week Burke received an apology from the BBC Radio 2 presenter Chris Evans over the fact that she had been in the bottom two the week before. “I would like to apologise on behalf of Great Britain because we forgot to vote for you,” said Evans to Burke, who revealed that Strictly had told her people didn’t vote for her because they presumed she was safe.

But alongside that benign explanation for her underperformance is another more troubling interpretation – and one that has nagged televised popularity contests ever since the early days of Big Brother. By this argument, Burke’s surprising difficulties are linked to deeply rooted racial anxieties that will not go away.

Despite Ore Oduba taking the Strictly crown last year, accusations of unconscious voter racism have long plagued the show, particularly after the row caused by the successive departures of black contestants Tameka Empson and Melvin Odoom. Subsequent analysis by the Guardian demonstrated that being black or minority ethnic increased a contestant’s chances of being in the bottom two by 71%, and being both black and female increased those odds by 83%.

Kehinde Andrews, a sociology professor at Birmingham City University and the co-editor of Blackness in Britain, said it was unsurprising that the British public were uncomfortable voting for Burke to win Strictly, a show beloved for promoting family values and a sense of British national identity, which many still see as being at odds with multiculturalism and diversity.

“Every time you see one of these reality shows, you see they get ethnically cleansed very quickly,” said Andrews. “These shows speak to how black and ethnic minority people are viewed with suspicion across Britain.”

Burke may have been the highest scoring contestant of the competition but across the media she has repeatedly been branded a “diva” and a “difficult” contestant, who “can’t stop bickering” and “screaming” at her dance partner, Gorka Marquez. It was then alleged that she went into “meltdown” after finding herself in the bottom two once again last Sunday, forcing Burke to issue a denial of the “fake” report.

Some observers said Joanna Jarjue, a contestant on The Apprentice, had received similar treatment before she was fired this week, having been persistently presented as unusually argumentative and aggressive. Lucy Mckeown, a makeup artist, tweeted: "Have to say the thinly veiled racism directed at @joannajarjueon this seasons Apprentice was hard to watch. She was no more “confrontational” than anyone else."

When Jarjue left the show she said she was grateful to everyone “who has supported me, been rooting for me and seen beyond a narrative”.

Andrews said Burke’s characterisation in some parts of the media was typical. “We shouldn’t be surprised that this is what’s happened on Strictly,” he said. “The diva script is one of the only scripts that is put across on TV for reading black women.”

Melanie Hill, a mixed-race female contestant on the first series of Big Brother, said that she had experienced similar prejudice when she was on the show and added that misogyny often went together with racial stereotypes.

“It was all interwoven with sexuality from the beginning,’ said Hill. “The video clip of the show that I couldn’t escape was of me getting unchanged in the bedroom. It was the same behaviour as everyone else, it’s not like I was doing striptease, but it was my bum that got singled out.

“It felt like they wanted to reduce me to this stereotype of a overly sexual, aggressive mixed-race woman. And the press had a complete field day with me being this despised ‘black widow’. I was called a preying mantis. It was all so sexually loaded which couldn’t be further my own view of my own identity.”

It was a similar experience for Makosi Musambasi, a contestant on Big Brother 6, who described how she had entered the show believing people would see her for who she was, an articulate, well-educated nurse, and had been shocked to find on leaving the show that the focus was entirely on her as a “sexy black woman with big boobs”.

“When I did it, it was awful. I just wanted to hide away after,” said Musambasi. “I realised people really can’t accredit anything else to black women but her body and in the Big Brother house there was no place for me as a smart black woman. They brought me into the house for my boobs and the script they had always intended for me was as a sexy black woman. The editing made that obvious – they showed me in the shower more than any other contestant, male or female.”

In a damning piece for Black Ballad, its editor, Tobi Oredein, described how this series of Strictly had once again seen flawed and damaging stereotypes foisted on a black reality TV contestant. “The ‘problem’ the public has with Alexandra Burke exposes the hypocrisy and racism that still has tight grip around the neck of the British nation,” she said.

Oredein said the treatment of Burke was indicative of how some members of the British public remained uncomfortable with a black woman outperforming the white contestants. “Alexandra is a self-assured black woman who is infiltrating a world of entertainment that is seen as an extremely white space,” she added.

“To the British public, how can this black woman be better than her white counterparts, show emotion and be beautiful?”

 

[TheNewNo2]

They're not saying Strictly is racist. They're saying the British public at large are racist, which seems pretty undeniably true to me.

 

[Butts]

They're not saying Strictly is racist. They're saying the British public at large are racist, which seems pretty undeniably true to me.

Perhaps not overtly - but certainly covertly ?

 

[AlterEgo]

They're not saying Strictly is racist. They're saying the British public at large are racist, which seems pretty undeniably true to me.

Perhaps not overtly - but certainly covertly ?

Every single person has racial prejudices.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

They're not saying Strictly is racist. They're saying the British public at large are racist, which seems pretty undeniably true to me.

Aye... Probably why it's taken until now for Mo Farah to win SPOTY. I remarked to my dad last night how if he didn't win this year (a relatively fallow year for sporting achievements) then he never would.

There's a large section of society who'll happily vote for a Christian, Belgian-born alleged drugs-cheat, but not a Muslim, Somalian-born alleged drugs-cheat!

 

[VauxhallandI]

They're not saying Strictly is racist. They're saying the British public at large are racist, which seems pretty undeniably true to me.

I don't watch the programme but my Mum was commenting on an article in The Times which barely mentioned the winner but gushed about Debbie McGhee.

She is a professionally trained ballet dancer!

Th eprogramme and the format is a joke, have professional judges followed by Joe Public voting, it makes no sense.

 

[RichmondCommu]

Every single person has racial prejudices.

That's a sweeping statement if ever there was one. There are still some decent people in society.

 

[Up_Tilt_390]

That's a sweeping statement if ever there was one. There are still some decent people in society.

I agree with you there, and I believe the majority of people aren’t racist. For me, I do not care whether one is black, white, Hispanic, Latino, Arab, or any other kind of race/ethnicity, because I probably will still hate them all equally.

 

[AlterEgo]

That's a sweeping statement if ever there was one. There are still some decent people in society.

You can be a decent person and still have racial prejudices. We all - without exception - have them, that’s why there’s corporate training to teach about things like unconscious bias.

 

[RichmondCommu]

You can be a decent person and still have racial prejudices. We all - without exception - have them, that’s why there’s corporate training to teach about things like unconscious bias.

You are completely wrong. I'm happy to say that I don't have any racial prejudices and for what it's worth I'm certainly not alone. No one should need a corporate training programme to stop them having racist views. Racists are not decent people.

 

[RichmondCommu]

I agree with you there, and I believe the majority of people aren’t racist. For me, I do not care whether one is black, white, Hispanic, Latino, Arab, or any other kind of race/ethnicity, because I probably will still hate them all equally.

Hate is a word that is used all too frequently in society.

 

[DarloRich]

You are completely wrong. I'm happy to say that I don't have any racial prejudices and for what it's worth I'm certainly not alone. No one should need a corporate training programme to stop them having racist views. Racists are not decent people.

But you do. We all do. Its called unconscious bias. You most certainly do have unconscious bias. That doesn't mean you are racist.

I agree with you there, and I believe the majority of people aren’t racist. For me, I do not care whether one is black, white, Hispanic, Latino, Arab, or any other kind of race/ethnicity, because I probably will still hate them all equally.

No one is saying people are, generally, racist. However we do have an unconscious bias about many things, including race

 

[Up_Tilt_390]

Hate is a word that is used all too frequently in society.

It comes easily with the state of the world as it now unfortunately.

 

[RichmondCommu]

But you do. We all do. Its called unconscious bias. You most certainly do have unconscious bias. That doesn't mean you are racist.

You are absolutely wrong. How you can accuse me of having racial prejudice without having met me beggars belief.

 

[DarloRich]

You are absolutely wrong. How you can accuse me of having racial prejudice without having met me beggars belief.

Unless you are the perfect human I am not wrong but neither am I accusing you of any racial prejudice. Please do try to grasp that.

Run one of the unconscious bias tests on line and have a look for yourself. It may not be a racial unconscious bias but there will be one if you answer the questions honestly. It might be gender or age or weight or sexuality or disability or religion or any number of things but it will be there. They are based upon our background, cultural environment and personal experiences so will differ from person to person.

For instance I just ran a sexuality unconscious bias test - it came out with no favour either way. I ran an age one and it came out favouring younger people.

 

[tony_mac]

You are absolutely wrong. How you can accuse me of having racial prejudice without having met me beggars belief.

Nothing about you as an individual, but statistically, a large majority of people do and they are mostly unaware of it. You seem to have a very simplistic view of how prejudice affects people.

See, for example,
http://blindspot.fas.harvard.edu/
You can even try their test for yourself
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/user/agg/blindspot/indexrk.htm

 

[RichmondCommu]

Nothing about you as an individual, but statistically, a large majority of people do and they are mostly unaware of it. You seem to have a very simplistic view of how prejudice affects people.

See, for example,
http://blindspot.fas.harvard.edu/
You can even try their test for yourself
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/user/agg/blindspot/indexrk.htm

I know all about racial prejudice thank you. My wife is Asian and as a serving police officer frequently suffers racist abuse.

 

[RichmondCommu]

Unless you are the perfect human I am not wrong but neither am I accusing you of any racial prejudice. Please do try to grasp that.

Run one of the unconscious bias tests on line and have a look for yourself. It may not be a racial unconscious bias but there will be one if you answer the questions honestly. It might be gender or age or weight or sexuality or disability or religion or any number of things but it will be there. They are based upon our background, cultural environment and personal experiences so will differ from person to person.

For instance I just ran a sexuality unconscious bias test - it came out with no favour either way. I ran an age one and it came out favouring younger people.

I don't need to undertake a test to know what kind of person I am. I'm certainly not perfect as an individual but I'm proud to say that I don't have any racial bias which is what I've been accused of having.

 

[DarloRich]

I know all about racial prejudice thank you. My wife is Asian and as a serving police officer frequently suffers racist abuse.

goodness me that is not what anyone is saying here. That is overt racism that is entirely different from an unconscious bias.

I don't need to undertake a test to know what kind of person I am. I'm certainly not perfect as an individual but I'm proud to say that I don't have any racial bias.

It is fine if you want to disagree. However, you might be surprised about something if you run the test.

 

[RichmondCommu]

goodness me that is not what anyone is saying here. That is overt racism that is entirely different from an unconscious bias.
.

In my opinion people know full well when they are racist without needing a test to tell them.

 

[DarloRich]

In my opinion people know full well when they are racist without needing a test to tell them.

that isn't really the point of an unconscious bias test.

 

[tony_mac]

In my opinion people know full well when they are racist without needing a test to tell them.

You appear to be completely missing the point. The vast majority of people have a mild, unconscious preference against people who are different to themselves. That's what we are talking about. Maybe you are a strange exception, but that would be statistically unlikely.
We are not talking about people being deliberately and overtly racist.

 

[martin2345uk]

Well I just tried out that Harvard unconscious bias test upthread and the results came out as:

Your data suggest a strong automatic preference for European American children compared to African American children

I’m a bit saddened by this.

 

[RichmondCommu]

You appear to be completely missing the point. The vast majority of people have a mild, unconscious preference against people who are different to themselves. That's what we are talking about. Maybe you are a strange exception, but that would be statistically unlikely.
We are not talking about people being deliberately and overtly racist.

I'm not missing the point. If people thought about themselves for a few minutes they would be able to read recognise their own faults without taking a fancy test. People are all too often reluctant to admit what they already know.

 

[RichmondCommu]

that isn't really the point of an unconscious bias test.

So why take the test then?

 

[AlterEgo]

You are completely wrong. I'm happy to say that I don't have any racial prejudices and for what it's worth I'm certainly not alone. No one should need a corporate training programme to stop them having racist views. Racists are not decent people.

If you don’t think you have racial prejudices then this makes you a little more ignorant than people who acknowledge that unconscious racial bias is a fact of life.

Training to spot unconscious bias is done not to root out racists, but to educate people and make them more self-aware.

 

[TheNewNo2]

That's a sweeping statement if ever there was one. There are still some decent people in society.

You are completely wrong. I'm happy to say that I don't have any racial prejudices and for what it's worth I'm certainly not alone. No one should need a corporate training programme to stop them having racist views. Racists are not decent people.

People who are out and out racist are certainly bad people. But just because you're an upstanding liberal person who would never use a racial slur does not mean you are unprejudiced, and nor does having prejudice mean you are not a decent person. It means you're not perfect, but I'd imagine you knew that already.

I know I have prejudice, both racial and gendered. I am less likely to watch a TV show about a black family, I'm more likely to nitpick women's statements than men's. That doesn't mean I wouldn't watch Blackish, or wouldn't be a pedant to a man, but overall a pattern emerges. It's not something huge, but it is something which I notice in myself, and it's something I don't like. I want to be better, but I am aware of my failings.

Prejudice is not something which is limited to race or gender - you may have prejudice against BMW drivers, people who eat barbecue-base pizza, people who don't like Star Wars, and for most of the time it's not a huge problem. You are prejudiced in some way or another, there is no doubt about that. What is important is to recognise it and to try to overcome it.

That said, BMW drivers are jerks.