It’s hard to ignore how beige Love Island USA is this season.
Now in its eighth season, the first episode asked the women to stand behind the door of the man they’re most attracted to. KC, a 23-year-old dark-skinned man from Fresno, California, said that he was worried no one would stand behind his door. He was right. Every woman, including the two with darker complexions, chose someone with lighter skin. KC was sent to stand alone at the fire pit until Aniya, who was also rejected by a lighter-skinned contestant, was sent to stand with him.
From the outside looking in, it may just seem like a regular coupling ceremony-turned viral meme. But two weeks into Season 8, this scene set the tone for what viewers have watched thus far.
This isn’t because previous seasons have done a better job of casting people with darker skin tones; promotional images from previous seasons show that casting typically doesn’t exceed three for the original cast. But it’s painfully obvious this season. And it’s making some scenes difficult to watch.
For those unfamiliar, Love Island USA follows a group of singles who spend the summer looking for love among themselves as they cohabit in a villa in Fiji. The show’s popularity has spiked due to the in-real-time component, which allows viewers to react (and interfere via regular votes) and watch new episodes five days a week. Love Island USA has also become a microcosm of how modern-day dating plays out in the real world. That includes socioeconomic differences, racial and gender dynamics and, yes, colorism.
To be fair, there is a good amount of diversity in comparison to previous seasons. This year showed a bit of promise when viewers were introduced to three islanders with dark skin in the first episode: KC, Aniya and Trinity. But so far, the five bombshells — contestants who enter mid-season to disrupt the established romances on the island — who have entered the villa have been either white or light-skinned. That’s impossible to ignore.
So much so that TikTok users have dubbed this season “Brown Paper Bag Island,” in reference to the discriminatory practice establishments used to deny entry to anyone who was darker than a brown paper bag. This Jim Crow-era practice may no longer operate in the literal sense, but the colorist sentiment behind it never went away. And it plays a role in desirability politics as much as it does in economic opportunities. Love Island USA is a case study in that.
In Episode 6, KC and Aniya have a heart-to-heart about the colorism she’s faced. “I feel darker-skinned women… get the shorter end of the stick, and they try to put a negative connotation on you guys,” KC told her. After Aniya confided in him about her struggles with how people perceive her dark skin, he told her, “Embrace it because you’re the blueprint.”
For some, that scene may have seemed random or out of place. Especially considering that the couple hadn’t gotten much screentime up until then. But considering how much viewers were calling out the colorism this season, leaving it in the edit may have been the producers’ way of addressing the criticism. Either way, KC’s words were sweet and necessary in a genre that usually skirts around how race plays a part in reality TV.
Aniya is beautiful. But it’s clear that her confidence has taken a hit in the villa. She more than likely notices the microaggressions, including bombshell Corbin making a sour face when he thought she was going to kiss her during the blindfold challenge. And she also more than likely has had to deal with a similar level of colorism when dating outside of reality TV, as so many dark-skinned women do.
In episode 8, even though they are considered the “most stable” couple of the season, we had to watch Trinity listen as Bryce gave several reasons he wanted to pull Kayda aside for a chat. Race was never mentioned, but for Trinty, who had just asked Bryce to be more outwardly affectionate, her facial expressions and reactions said it all.
Moments like this make the show hard to watch. However, nothing about this is new. In previous seasons of Love Island USA, we’ve seen preferential treatment given to blonde-haired, blue-eyed, or racially ambiguous contestants. And we unfortunately have two examples of male contestants allegedly using their dark-skinned partners (JaNa, Season 6 and Zeta, Season 3) to win adoration from Black women who are driving their fandoms online and get lucrative brand deals.
From Summer House to The Bachelor to Love Is Blind, reality TV puts a huge magnifying glass on how darker-skinned Black people are dehumanized, even in romance. They’re either seen as undesirable to date or hypersexualized. But the fact of the matter is that there are so many people who are genuinely attracted to and love folks with dark skin. It’s a shame that that’s not taken into deeper consideration in casting.
What counters that beautifully is watching KC notice that Aniya needed that reassurance and deliver it. Seeing Kordell love Serena (Season 6) out loud over the past two years has felt like eye candy as much as it is soul food. And Nic never misses a moment to show how much he adores and protects Olandria (Season 7).
On top of that, we have so many other real-life examples of Black love that’s as deep as their melanin, showing that the last thing dark skin and features could be is undesirable.
As this show progresses, producers will need to figure out how they’re going to address the colorism that continues to plague the villa season after season. Whether or not they do that remains to be seen. I do know one thing: We better get some more dark-skinned folks in the villa ASAP.