Big Brother has become critical race theory on reality TV.
The “Head of Household” and the “Power of Veto” were once the most powerful advantages in the game. Now, however, the most powerful advantage in the game is race.
That’s why a white man named Kyle Capener was voted out of the game last week.
I’m a Big Brother super fan. I’ve watched every episode for 20 years. But it’s becoming increasingly difficult to watch the show. Like its sister show, Survivor, Big Brother contestants have replaced smart strategies with struggle sessions over supposed racism to win the game.
If you’re unfamiliar with Big Brother, it’s a CBS game show featuring 16 houseguests isolated in a house filled with cameras to record their every move—hence the name “Big Brother”, from George Orwell’s 1984 novel. The game is simple: a houseguest is voted out every week until a winner is declared.
What makes the show interesting is that it forces contestants to scheme and create alliances with other houseguests in order to win the game.
Therefore several weeks ago, Kyle Capener tried to create an alliance with two houseguests named Michael and Brittany so they could help him vote out contestants he perceived as his biggest threats in the game. The problem with Kyle’s proposal, however, is that it was intended to create a whites-only alliance to vote out what he believed was a blacks-only alliance.
Michael and Brittany were uncomfortable with the implications of Kyle’s proposal, so they rejected the alliance. However, they didn’t share that information with the rest of the houseguests.
But last week, Kyle became the most powerful person in the game—and for reasons unrelated to their rejection of the alliance—he was scheming to vote out Michael and Brittany. So wanting to save their own games, they revealed to rest of the houseguests that Kyle had attempted to create a whites-only alliance to vote out black houseguests.
Michael and Brittany suggested Kyle is a racist, an accusation that immediately destroyed Kyle’s game. The rest of the house, including his allies, no longer wanted him in the game. They consistently said, “this (racism) is bigger than the game.”
It’s not unusual for Big Brother contestants to betray each other. In fact, Kyle was this season’s biggest betrayer before last week. What made Michael and Brittany’s actions disgusting isn’t that it canceled Kyle inside the house—it’s that it’s canceled Kyle outside the house too.
Because of Michael and Brittany’s actions, Kyle is now considered a racist by millions of people.
Before I address why Kyle isn’t a racist, I should say that I actually disliked Kyle in the game. He is loud, arrogant, and rude. I didn’t have a favourite houseguest this season: I had a least favourite person— it was Kyle. I wanted Kyle to get voted out of the house—but not like this.
False accusations are wrong, even if they’re against people we dislike.
Kyle’s suggestion for a whites-only alliance is sadly reasonable in context. Kyle didn’t consider a whites-only alliance because he hates black people. He didn’t consider a whites-only alliance because he thinks only white people should win the game. He considered a whites-only alliance because he was worried about the possibility of a second blacks-only alliance in Big Brother.
He was worried there might be a “Cookout 2.0” this season, following the “Cookout” alliance last season. Last year, for the first time in Big Brother—contestants created an alliance based strictly on their skin colour. And since the remaining houseguests didn’t suspect that anyone would form an alliance on that basis, the blacks-only alliance dominated the game.
The 6 members of the alliance were the last 6 houseguests in the house. They are therefore considered the most successful Big Brother alliance of all time.
Their justification for the blacks-only alliance is that prior to their season, a black person hadn’t won the game. They claimed this is because of racism.
Related to that, before last season—CBS released a statement saying “people of colour” would make up 50% of their casts in reality TV shows. Therefore because of CBS’ “equity” initiative, 6 of the 16 houseguests last season were black—which empowered the “Cookout” alliance.
Meaning, Kyle wouldn’t have considered a whites-only alliance if there wasn’t a blacks-only alliance last season. On top of that, he probably wouldn’t have considered a whites-only alliance if one of the black women this season hadn’t said on multiple occasions that she will not vote out other black women.
Nevertheless, this controversy is a good example of critical race theory’s self-fulfilling prophecy.
The “Cookout” alliance claim their blacks-only alliance was necessary because Big Brother’s white contestants are unconsciously motivated by race. So they formed their race-centric alliance, which prompted Kyle to consider the possibility of another “Cookout” alliance—tempting him to make decisions on the game that are motivated by race. Which leads the “Cookout” and their fans to use Kyle as justification for blacks-only alliances.
It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. Critical race theorists tempt white people to become more race-centric, then when that happens—they use that as justification for their fallacious ideology.
Kyle Capener immediately agreed with the accusations against him. He used all the right buzzwords and went on an apology tour for a sin he didn’t commit. After all, white people have been taught that it’s better for their reputations to agree with false accusations of racism than to refute them.
He’s defeated—in the game, and in life.
Michael and Brittany, however, are probably unlikely to be defeated in the game. They are now two of the most powerful contestants.
It’s interesting, Michael and Brittany are progressives. Like the rest of white progressives, they’ve used accusations of racism to manipulate black people to vote in a way that only benefits white progressives.
