‘Big Brother’ Is Being Called Out After Three POC Were Evicted In The First Week
Big Brother Australia returned this week with a brand new format which includes an elimination every episode.
The new format involves challenges between housemates, with the winning housemate able to choose three people to nominate for elimination, before the other housemates vote on who goes. Think Survivor but with people stuck in a big house instead of on an island, and who don’t seem to play the game with that much obvious strategy.
However, if you’ve been watching Big Brother this week, you would’ve noticed that the three people evicted this week – Laura, Allan, and SooBong – have all been people of colour and fans of the show are rightfully calling this out.
While Laura and SooBong were challenge threats and Allan’s social game worked against him, there’s something to be said for the implicit bias we’re seeing unfold on our screens as the housemates decide who to evict.
Fans of Big Brother aren’t happy about how the evictions have worked this week:
Say Laura, Allen and Soobong are threats all you want but Kieran was the same as Allen, way more toxic than Laura (who cooked for everyone!) and where are the nominations for physical threat and pro athlete Dan? It IS about race. They better not come for Queen Angela #bbau
— Brianna McFarlane (@BriiMcFarl) June 10, 2020
Wow… three evictions and three people of colour evicted. The housemates obviously have a racial bias problem. “They didn’t fit in, they are a threat, they’re different”. Excuses excuses. Racism is ugly. Daniel is a ringleader. #bbau #bigbrotherau #racisminaustralia
— Behind Big Brother (@behindbb) June 10, 2020
Strong Black Woman.
Eliminated.Loud Asian Man.
Eliminated.Strong Asian Man.
Eliminated.#BBAU #BigBrotherAU pic.twitter.com/PB4ZMc4ojI— Sine 〄🌧⚔️🕊💓🌼 #BlackLivesMatters (@blurboi) June 10, 2020
Absolutely critical to point out that 3/4 POC's that were cast for #BBAU have gone in the first week.
This once again shows that we have a long way to go to ensuring that Reality TV casting in Australia is diverse (not just for #MasterchefAU).
— 𝐀𝐝𝐚𝐦 𝐑𝐢𝐝𝐚 (@AdamRida) June 10, 2020
#BBAU the fact that 3 people of colour were the first voted out proves that we all have implicit biases. It’s an internal battle that we must face.
— trashy slot🗑 (@trashyslott) June 10, 2020
Big brother producers quietly shitting themselves hoping no one notices all the minorities get voted out first #BBAU
— mark (@voodoorock) June 10, 2020
The eliminated contestants have since said it was a coincidence in an interview with Huffington Post Australia.
“It was coincidence, it was a bit of bad luck and it just happened that Laura is of that ethnicity and that she is a strong person athletically,” Allan said. “Then you’ve got me who is the brains behind the operation that plays a great social game, and then you’ve got Soobong who everyone thought was a threat because he’s quite an interesting character.”
Laura did point out in the interview that there had been an “us vs. them” mentality. “Inside the house, obviously Angela and Allan were the only two people I thought I could relate to,” she said. “There’s this kind of unspoken language where we will immediately band and respect each other knowing when you’re in the presence of a lot of white people.”
when do we get to vote who's out because i'm pretty sure all of australia wants talia and dan gone #BBAU
— bella (@itsbelladee) June 10, 2020
Look, I don’t know about you guys, but I’d rather watch a whole hour of SooBong doing push-ups on his fingers and toes than hear Talia passive-aggressively say “it was just a JOKE” again.
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We have reached out to Channel 7 for a statement.