Friday, July 12, 2013

A Big Opportunity

Three years ago, I started watching the television show Big Brother.  Before that I had seen part of an episode or two, at most, and what I had seen did not interest me.  In 2010, though, I knew one of the contestants on the show (Ragan Fox), so my wife and I started watching ... and we got hooked.  We've watched every season since, and we're watching the current season of the show.

Even if you don't watch Big Brother, you may have heard about it in the news this summer for the racist, homophobic, and misogynistic comments that some of this summer's contestants have made.  At first, as people began to comment on the contestants' comments, the comments had not appeared on the actual show.  Rather, viewers who had been watching the 24/7 live feed of the houseguests and/or watching Big Brother After Dark, which runs for two hours every night on the channel TVGN, had witnessed the comments and began to discuss them publicly.  Some called for the producers of Big Brother to air and address the comments on the actual show.  Among those making such a call was Ragan himself, who penned an open letter to the show's producers in which he stated, among other things, "What’s the point of casting racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities if production’s going to edit out the racism, ethnic discrimination, and homophobia that these people encounter inside the house?"

Over the past week, Big Brother did air and address some of the comments.  First, the show aired some of the comments this past Sunday.  Then, last night, the show aired a segment in which one contestant, Amanda, addressed the situation with Aaryn, who is the contestant who, while not alone in making racist comments, has been identified as the largest and most egregious culprit.  Amanda sought, extremely diplomatically, to advise Aaryn not to make such comments any more, but Aaryn was uninterested in reconsidering her actions.

Kudos to the producers of Big Brother for showing and addressing this on the show.  There are some critiques to be had of the way that they did, but I think there is some value to them having aired and addressed it as they did.  That said, I'd like them to take at least one more step.

Last night, Big Brother After Dark featured a very profound discussion between the show's two African-American contestants, Candice and Howie.  After having been a have-not this past week (a situation in which select houseguests must sleep, shower, and eat in uncomfortable ways), Candice was looking forward to sleeping on a regular bed and, because houseguests at this stage in the game must share beds between two and/or three people, had agreed that she would share a bed with Howie.  Yet, when she tried to use the bed, she could not escape continued comments from other houseguests who were using beds in the same room.  Then, after she returned from a show event that had called all houseguests to see the "HOH" room of the new Head of Household (a position of power in which a contest-winning contestant gets to choose two contestants who are up for eviction over the next week as well as enjoy some other perks), other contestants had flipped over the mattress on Candice and Howie's bed so that those contestants would not have to sleep on the same side of the mattress as Candice and Howie.

When Candice vocally addressed this and tensions mounted, Howie carried her into the Have-Not Room (the room in which the have-nots must sleep, which this season features airplane chairs as beds), and the two of them discussed the situation.  Their conversation was perhaps the most poignant moment I have seen on the show.  It demonstrated in specific and real detail the kind of dilemma that African Americans face in dealing with racism (and the same would go for additional groups who have faced oppression).  As Candice stated explicitly, all she wanted to do was lay down in her bed, but she could not do so without racial harassment.  She wanted to fight against the harassment, and she was asking Howie to return to the room as well so that they could verbally rebut the harassment.  Howie, though, did not want to go to the room and was willing to sleep without a bed if it meant not having to be subject to the direct harassment.

Their conversation articulated the depths of their no-win situation.  On the one hand, as Candice suggested, if they did not go back to the room, they were depriving themselves of things, such as a bed and use of the room, that they, as contestants, could reasonably expect to have.  Additionally, by not rebutting the harassment, they were allowing the perpetrators of the harassment to continue unabated in their racist practices.  On the other hand, as Howie suggested, if they did go back to the room and rebut the racism, it would stoke their own emotional reactions to the comments and potentially affect their ability to play the game.  Meanwhile, it would provide material for Candice and Howie to be characterized and potentially ostracized as overly dramatic and aggressive.  Both choices had advantages and disadvantages, and both reinforced their marginalization.  (For some brief descriptions of key events in this situation, see here.)

To go back to the question from Ragan that I quoted above, part of showing racism is showing the very real dilemmas into which it places individuals who have been subjected to it.  With that in mind, I think it would behoove the producers of Big Brother to show the situation with the mattress and some of the conversation between Candice and Howie.  This is a chance to show, very explicitly and profoundly, the kinds of Catch-22s that racism creates for those who experience its oppression, and I really hope the producers of Big Brother take this opportunity.

UPDATE:  Just after posting this, I found that TMZ.com has commentary on and video of the situation.  To see it click here.