Sarah does seem really popular. All I really care to say with regards to Adjoa was as many have pointed out, she appeared in the house to be emotionless, which made it hard for the public to warm to and connect with her. There were a lot of reasons to dislike her - none of which had anything to do with her skin colour. The crowd reaction did appear extreme but then when isn't it? Many a HM has suffered the same fate .... many more will, irregardless of race.

Would 'systemic' versus 'interpersonal' define the difference? Regardless, they both start with what's in the heart and mind of individuals.

Great post BTW. Saying its 'racism' is just too simplistic when racism can mean different things to different people and when there are also other factors at play.

IMO, it's a host of things that combine to create a negative view of someone, stuff like race, sexuality, gender, social status and unique personality traits that form this precarious Jenga tower of judgement.

Thanks and back at ya!! You're were dropping a lot of valuable knowledge in those threads yesterday.

Racism is so annoying complex that i don't know if the terms ' systematic' or 'interpersonal' would cover all incidences involving racism . A lot of racism against poc start out as 'interpersonal' someone has a racial gripe with another person then evolves into the systematic as institutions will often back aggressor and reinforce the racial discrimination.

I know this may be perceived as an extremely controversial view but i believe that while everyone is capable of hating others based on their race and being prejudiced, POC can't be racist as they lack power and privilege.

Prejudice : Hating someone based on their race
Racist: Prejudice plus power and privillege


In my opinion, the powerful element concerning privilege and power is often ignorant or purposefully forgotten when discussing racism. The power and privilege within racism is often the most devasting element of it. Certain people may be at the receiving end of hateful prejudicial abuse but in most cases that they don't have to deal with power and privilege aspect.


Privilege and Power doesn't only exist in racism, it's rife throughout other narratives concerning gender, sexual orientation, and class or wealth status and it's a shame not a lot of people have cottoned on to it.

I.M.H.O. It was her filthy mouth that got her evicted, a few more of the same were not up for eviction so.....

Why do these threads keep popping up?

It was nothing to do with race, she was the loudest and most annoying housemate up - therefore she was evicted!

Your logic does a bad job of representing the way peoples brains work imo. Their have been some black people that have thrived on Big Brother owing to their personalities. In those circumstances people have voted on the grounds of personality not race. But what happens when you have two hm's equally boring as each other. Does race eventually become a deciding factor as a way to separate the otherwise inseparable. This is a common problem i have when choosing which flavour noodles to have for dinner. Chow Mein and Curry flavour are much the same to me and yet the curry flavour noodles come in purple packaging. I like purple.

When you look at the way Adjoa was treated on her exit, i'm not quite sure whether to cry prejudice or pantomime to be honest. I think i'll go for the latter, with the caveat the two are not mutually exclusive.

The exceptions do show something, though. They show that race is not so big, or so dominant, a factor that there can't be exceptions.

I think one problem threads like this have is that the issue is often presented by saying race definitely was the reason Adjoa was evicted. But we don't actually know that that's true. And when people argue that is is true, it can seem that everyone who voted for her is being accused.

Race is bound to be a factor, in various ways. It doesn't have to be out-and-out racism. As you said in another post, it can be something that "consciously or otherwise nudges perception, along with gender, looks, class and in Adjoa's case a very overt sexuality". Also, the effect can be, not to automatically or immediately turn someone against the HM, but to give the HM a smaller "margin of error" (a point Villa made years ago re female HMs).

But it's important to remember that even when it nudges, other things can be nudging too. When it is a factor, it will seldom be the only one that affects someone's view or voting decision; and when it is a factor, it may not be the one that prevails.

I'm glad you linked something about the Social Attitudes Survey, because it gives us something concrete about the level of racial prejudice in the UK. People sometimes seem to think it's a tiny, insignificant thing in the UK today, and so should be ignored with thinking about BB evictions. I think that's clearly wrong. There's enough racial prejudice that it ought to be considered.

But is it so great a factor that a black man can't win BB, or a black woman cannot ever survive eviction votes or be popular? No. We know that because of the 'exceptions'. Is it enough, combined with the factors that work against female HMs, so that a black woman cannot ever win BB? We don't know, but it seems possible to me that a black woman could win. (Whether it's likely to happen before BB ceases to exist as a tv show is a different matter.)

When thinking about evictions, I think a reasonable position to take is that race is a large enough factor that it can make the difference in a close vote. When Science lost to Orlaith in bb6, the difference was 0.5%. How can anyone be sure race didn't make that much difference? They can't. But if it did make that much difference, that doesn't mean every single person's vote must be tainted or that no other factors made any difference at all.

We don't know how close Adjoa's eviction was. Since Emma didn't say it was close, it probably wasn't as close as 1 or 2 percent. But it could still have been as small as, say, 3-5%. Given all the often subtle ways race can have an effect, and with the Social Attitudes Survey showing 30% of the population admitting to at least a little prejudice, I don't think we can be sure race wasn't enough to make the difference. However, since we don't even know the vote percentages, it shouldn't be treated as definite either.