OPINION | Dear ‘Love Island SA’, the rainbow nation deserves to be included

Love Island SA is a show that has gained notoriety for all the wrong reasons within a few days of airing its first episode on DStv.

The backlash felt premature at first. I thought people should have perhaps given the show the chance to give us some enjoyable reality TV.

However, upon closer inspection, I believe South Africans deserve much more than what they were being offered by the show’s creators and cast members. Representing our  diverse country should have been a number one priority. Considering it is 27 years since democracy, I thought this was standard SA practice.

With 10 contestants at the beginning of the season and six white, it is no wonder the nation was up-in-arms about the long-awaited show.

For those who don’t know (yet), here’s how the show works: The format of the globally loved reality TV features contestants (referred to as Islanders) living in isolation on a wine farm in Stellenbosch under constant camera surveillance.

The aim of the show is for the Islanders to couple up. Through trial and error of coupling the Islanders and a series of eliminations, the remaining couple will win a cash prize of R1m.

However, with the show already having a cult following from their successful seasons in other countries, how could M-Net and the producers have failed so miserably on day one? Mzansi deserves better, and here’s why:

The country is majority black. The nation’s racial demographics (estimated by Stats SA in  mid-2019) is 80.7% black, 8.8% coloured, 7.9% white and 2.6% Indian.

Shouldn’t reality TV reflect the realities of SA?

Representation in the media has been a hot topic over the last few years, both in SA and across the globe. A significant example of this was the #OscarsSoWhite movement that had Hollywood’s feathers ruffled for questioning the norm of mainly white faces on the nominees’ list. This was highlighted as a trend across award shows in the US and the UK. Keeping this in mind, how did the producers overlook the fact that their cast was mostly white?

It was possibly the “unconscious racial bias” that is running rampant in SA. The topic  again had Mzansi abuzz last week after eNCA reporter Lindsey Dentlinger came under fire after a video clip showed her asking black politicians to keep their masks on during  interviews while white politicians went “maskless”.

She has since apologised, saying she wasn’t intentionally being racist. It can’t be ruled out that there was a strong underlying current of “unconscious racial bias” that has affected the South African media landscape, including Love Island SA.

This also isn’t Multichoice’s first accusation of racism when it comes to their reality TV shows. When SA’s The Bachelor first aired on screens, viewers were very clearly upset over a majority white cast in a country supposedly moving forward from the shackles of the past.

Fans took to social media with similar dissatisfaction and lambasted the broadcaster for being “too white”

Other races weren’t represented in the show, begging the question: Where was the rest of the rainbow? There is hypocrisy in representing one minority of the country and barely acknowledging others like Indian or coloured people.

No one is saying white people shouldn’t be a part of the show or that white people are not part of this country. We shouldn’t ignore the fact that there are white people in this country.

However, the “lack of diversity” on several shows and in other instances takes SA back to its turbulent history and is a reminder that racism is still alive. 

Love Island SA and show producers of the future – next time you cast, please stick to the reality of the country.