I think the point is that we are - for the most part - so unconscious of our biases that a lot of u don't believe we have them.

So a white bloke (Ed Balls) can be loud and in your face and jokey, and many people think, 'Oh what fun. I'll vote for him. He's such a laugh.' Because culturally we are at ease with the idea of men are being noisy and humorous.

A black woman can be similarly loud and up front and crack jokes, but many people will think, 'Oh she's so loud. It's too much. It's really annoying. I won't vote for her.'

That doesn't mean those voters are neo-Nazi and KKK members.

But it does mean they may have quite set ideas about how groups should behave. And if individual within those groups don't behave that way they may bel penalised - via the withdrawal of votes - for stepping out of line.

Well said!

I don't really think Ed Balls IS loud and "in your face".... or at least that's not how I have found him to be so far. He certainly embraced the character of The Mask in Saturday's show - which I think was necessary to enhance the performance - but I haven't been aware of him being particularly loud or inclined to be attention-seeking as a rule.

So by that token, everytime a male dancer is in the DO, it's fine for for me, as a man, to assume there was an element of un-conscious bias on the part of every woman who voted for a female dancer?

As I said previously, I don't think anyone's denying that un-conscious bias exists on an individual level, but there's simply no evidence that it happens in sufficient numbers each week to affect the result. Where does it end? Maybe Laura was in the DO because of un-conscious Irish bias. Maybe Tameka was in it because of un-conscious Eastenders bias. Or, and here's a crazy idea, maybe they were just both a bit rubbish and neither one had much public support for whatever reason?

Doesn't Sam Gyimah count? I think there might be others.

Incorrect for me. I found Kelli Bright loud and upfront and unappealling and she is white. Tameka was a little OTT but she didn't get to me nearly as much. You are applying stereotypes where they don't exist. Might as well say the annoying ones had blue or brown eyes.

Are not two black people allowed to be voted of one week after another...but it is okay for two white people to be voted off.

It just gets worse

https://twitter.com/YahooCelebUK/sta...76729989193728

With two black contestants eliminated and an Irish woman and American woman in the bottom two - is #Strictly racist? http://

So basically now if it is anyone who is not white British then it's racism.

Who said it was ok. How many white dancers are in the show. Are you aware of probability?

You put it very well Peachy. We all have factors we respond positively to and other things that we don't like. Such things are present in all contestants, regardless of colour.

Long before the Anastacia controversy, I was a little disappointed with her 'we're going to win this' attitude. I have been a fan for a long time and was, I suppose expecting something different. She seemed to me very loud and over-confident, something which I found particularly hard to take from a non-Brit.

Of course, my reaction was nothing to do with Anastacia and everything to do with my own prejudices in terms of what I like and don't like. I don't like overly pushy people and I respond badly to over-confidence. Of course all she was doing was demonstrating her particular personality. I demonstrated mine by not voting for her.

And its the same with the other contestants, regardless of their dance ability. Naga makes me want to shake her, Louise needs to find her mojo, Will could lose the argumentativeness and Tameka was just too in your face. By contrast the judge makes me laugh, I admire Ed Balls, Ore has wonderful grace and humility and Lesley is amazing.

Complete nonsense to spout the racist card. Tameka was the weakest dancer in the dance off this week. I think Naga will go soon - not because she is Asian but because her dancing lacks personality. Ed will go sooner or later but I have to say that he has surprised me in his willingness to really have a go at dancing rather than just clowning around - unlike Anne Widdecombe, John Sergeant, etc. I don't think Lesley will last much longer - because of her hunched shoulders - and not because she is Jewish!

So no-one has a problem that three of the four DO'ers were women, then. I guess racism trumps sexism. Gawd help us if a black American lesbian ever appears on the show.

And as you can see, people react angrily when their self-image is questioned. To the extent they refuse to believe it could ever be possible that they've internalised a single negative stereotype, ever, even one, let alone that it may affect the choices they make in life, even petty ones such as reality show voting.

But we all absorb stereotypes. It's a fact of life.

Twatter will probably just explode

I am not good enough with maths to work out the statistical probability - actual dancing ability set aside - of two non-white contestants being in the dance-off two weeks running. But I think the odds would be quite long.

I think there are ways in which non-white contestants can have done things in their non-dance lives that make them seem more 'one of us' to the general UK public. An Olympic medal helps. Probably being in a very very popular band does. (Not sure that being a minor TV presenter or a soap actor is quite enough.)

However let's try and imagine that instead of Ed Balls as the Strictly politician we had Diane Abbott, and that her dancing ability was identical to Ed's. Anyone think she would have avoided the dance-off....

I was referring to the local constituency which in the throws of a by-election.

If she was good or had comedic value she would get votes , if she was bad and came across the same way as she usually does I cannot see her getting many votes, sod all to do with her colour just that she can come across as rather unpleasant so therefore does not have an army of fans as such , so unless she was either really good or really bad in a comedic way or had a personality transplant and became endearing I wouldn't see her staying long.

Spot on. She used to be okay when she appeared on This Week with Andrew Neil and Michael Portillo but since she took up with the bearded one, she seems to have taken leave of her senses and just spout the most awful rubbish, a large proportion of which is simply untrue. Couldn't vote for her under any circumstances because she is deeply unpleasant

She had great rapport with Michael Portillo and they both managed to come over very well in that format.

I can't quite decide what I think about her these days...

I would have to agree on This Week it was like a different person and I changed my opinion of her in a way , now she is with Jeremy (not in the biblical sense, well not any more anyway) she has just gone back to being ridiculous at times and rather nasty at others. I do wonder if This Week was us seeing the real her a bit softer without any pressure to gain media attention ?

I am aware of people trying to use the race card...three black people have won Strictly...same thing every year and sad that people jump on the racist bandwagon.

3 black people haven't won Strictly.
Alesha-mixed race
Louis-mixed race
Mark R-mixed race

Since when were mixed race people, black?

I'm not targeting just you, but a lot of people seem to consider mixed race people as black when they aren't. They may have black in them but they aren't purely black.

I first noticed Temeka Empsom on a BBC3 show called '3 non blondes' in 2003.

I would describe her as a comedienne, or at any rate., a comedy actress.

She isn't the first person with that kind of background to end up as a 'serious' actor/actress on Eastenders. That explains her desire to be funny all the time. If she had become much better known as a comedy actress (which is her real strength) would be people be so harsh on her? I mean, you'd expect Miranda, or Katy Wix or Katherine Ryan to be a bit OTT, because they are all comediennes, so if any of them desplayed the same behaviour as Temeka it would be deemed 'ok'- as in- she does comedy, so we expect her to be like that. Because she's wound up in Eastenders people just think she's an actress trying to hard to get noticed, and consider that a turn off.

But I would say you would naturally classify her as 'a comedienne who can act' rather than a serious actress who happens to be in Eastenders, so her personality reflects that. But- if you knew she was a comedienne I think people would perhaps be better disposed towards her antics (I mean- you'd expect the other ladies I mentioned who made their names in comedy to play up a bit and want to be the centre of attention- so no great surprise Tameka is the same.

I am sure mixed race people who get verbal abuse, or beaten up due to the colour of their skin, will curse the day they were not "properly black"

Can we keep it sensible people please - it's a dancing show with people of all backgrounds and ethnicities. The Pro dancers come from everywhere you can imagine.

I cannot imagine anyone would vote or not vote based on the colour of a particpant's skin.

Well said.

The defensive replies are hilarious. Keep them coming.