The disturbing racial bias of the greatest dancer | Television and radio

Ybadaui Mergaliyev, ballet dancer trained in Russia, shows up to play. For two minutes, he performs a breathtaking routine of super spins and jumps in the air to amaze the studio audience of The BBC's The Greatest Dancer. Presenters Jordan Banjo and Alesha Dixon have their jaws on the ground. Celebrity Captains Cheryl, Oti Mabuse and Matthew Morrison scream in a hoarse voice: "You must vote for this guy!" But the Kazakh dancer does not have enough votes to move to the next round. Someone in the crowd yawns. "It was not so exciting, Was it? "Another member of the audience is whispering to his neighbor.

The last BBC competition on Saturday night has a unique twist: it gives "power to the people" (and we all know how this go). Audience members completely control who is progressing from the beginning. Each dancer must try to convince 75% of the audience to turn on his lights, which opens up the studio's mirror and lets them perform in front of the live crowd and the dance captains, while ensuring a place in the recalls. .

But this attempt at democracy gave us a glimpse of the tastes of British dance and, more unpleasant, deeply rooted racial anxieties. This weekend, BBC One aired the last of the auditions, so that only one of the nine finalists is a BAME group.

Race-related issues have already surfaced in reality-controlled reality shows. Strictly Come Dancing, Big Brother and Love Island have all repeatedly emphasized the same result: Great Britain has a clear preference, unconscious or not, for white competitors.

Some might argue that Mergaliyev failed because of the declining popularity of ballet in the general public or, as Cheryl said, the lack of "technique" of the crowd.[ness]But his Central Asian heritage also seems to have deterred voters. In this climate of pre-Brexit limbo, the chances of minority dancers to have what Simon Cowell calls the sympathy factor seem particularly slim.

The link between diversity and unpopularity was even more marked when Asian dancers Matthew Mindtrick Holt and William, 16, failed to defeat the crowd. Once again, the two presenters and the three captains were amazed by shouting, "Come on, people. Vote! Vote! Vote! What's wrong with you? But the audience refused to move.

The most obvious case of prejudice, however, was the hearing in Chinese Dance, which garnered the smallest number of votes among all acts, including those that had failed. Traditional Chinese Biàn liǎn the performers convinced that only 34% of the crowd turned on their lights. Although the group impressed dance captain Mabuse, East Asian dresses and old opera masks proved repulsive. Receptionist Amelia Wilson was confused by the traditional, fuzzy outfit "which is this! "When the troop entered the room. A woman in the crowd said she "scared her life" with her historic clothes.

Elsewhere, James Clifton and Dynamic Dads, two technically flawed white competitors, got 75% almost instantly, despite the fact that the dance captain, Morrison, bluntly explained that "the vocabulary of dance was not there." At the hearing, 83% of the white acts were successful, while only two Asian competitors managed to open the mirror.

The rejection of Ybadaui, Matthew and William reflects the waning of the representation of East and Central Asia in modern British culture. According to recent statistics from the DWP, Asians are the least likely of all ethnic groups in the United Kingdom to have a job. While Asian faces are not entirely absent from British television and film, they tend to adopt stereotyped secondary roles. In addition, according to the OKCupid dating site, Asian men are alongside black women as the demographic data that receive the fewest matches.

Similarly, the treatment of black women in Britain seems to be paralleled in the audience votes of The Greatest Dancer. While Frobacks, a group of four blacks, was one of Cheryl's top three, the only group of black and all-female women, Afro Queens, was unable to open the mirror. The group's fight for votes reflects the struggle that many black women face in reality television.

In 2017, Alexandra Burke was placed several times in the last two places, despite the top scores of the judges. Its failure to appeal to the British public has magnified the problem of cross-gender bias against black women in the United Kingdom, who often face double discrimination on the basis of bad and race. But the rejection that women of color and Asians face in talent shows like Strictly and The Greatest Dancer is also a reflection of broader issues related to the world of work, health care, film and British dating.

The BBC was invited to comment on the issue of whitewashing in the show and responded, "The Biggest Dancer is one of the most inclusive talent shows and includes a wide range of dance talent. Anyone can audition from 7 to 70 years old and more and all dance styles are welcome. At auditions, the public holds the power to determine who pbades … The auditions were filmed in Birmingham, one of the most diverse and dynamic cities in the UK, and the studio took it into account.

Although there is no evidence that the British public intentionally discriminates, reality TV continues to follow a whitewashing formula, which extends to other areas of British society. Regardless of the multiethnicity of the public, the way in which the public votes is still in dispute and the bias of the white candidates must be questioned.