‘Big Brother 22’: Zakiyah Everette Calls out Show and Challenges It to Cast More Black Houseguests After Controversial HOH
One by one, it seems like the people of color on the Big Brother season 22 are being picked off. It isn’t sitting right with some fans and select alumni of the show, including Zakiyah Everette of Big Brother 18, who called the show out on Twitter recently.
The season’s only Black female houseguests were nominated together
As expected when a member of the majority secret alliance, The Committee, won Head of Household, Da’Vonne Rogers and Bayleigh Dayton were both put on the block and are at risk of being evicted from the house. Despite the fact they are close allies, many fans have thought this to be problematic since they are the only Black women in the house and there are still plenty of people left in the game.
Their nominations are a part of a larger, troubling trend for this season. Our of the five contestants evicted already, four of them have been women and the fifth was a person of color. Out of the five people of color in the game, two have already been evicted and two others are on the block right now. Each week has seen a person of color be nominated while no white men have been nominated in the first six weeks.
‘Big Brother 18’ star Zakiyah Everette takes the show to task
In a series of tweets this weekend, Zakiyah Everette, who was a houseguest and jury member on Big Brother 18, spoke about the show and vented a lot of the same frustrations that fans have had about the show. Everette was on the show during Rogers’ second season and was one of her allies in the house.
First, she called out Abbott, citing the fact that she put both Rogers and Dayton on the block. The two are currently the only women of color left in the house. Everette said, “You know tf what ?! it’s frustrating enough that we only get 3 black ppl (that’s debatable for one) in an entire season…then here comes Jingle bells deciding to put up 2. For what?! Y’all stay coming for POC and it’s disturbing!”
In a separate tweet, she wrote, “There’s a conversation that needs to be had Frfr any past bb contestants can explain the logic?, what’s the obsession with putting up the only POC in the house? None threatening , willing to work with you …. sounds like this country.”
Everette also made a plea to the show to cast more Black people given that each season, Black houseguests always leave early due to being the minority in the house. “As for the show … I really challenge y’all to cast more BLACK ppl,” she said. “[W]e never stand a chance season after season because we are always a target and always outnumbered… I dare you to argue me we aren’t.”
‘Big Brother Canada’ is already working on a diversity plan
The franchise’s Canadian version, Big Brother Canada, is typically thought to be more diverse than its U.S. counterpart. The show’s host, Arisa Cox, tweeted a thread recently about her plan with the show to make sure that 50% of houseguests are Black, Indigenous or People of Color. (BIPOC).
“BB is a number game,” she said. “If we want every player to have the same chance to succeed, we must evolve past the idea that minorities in the country must remain minorities in the house.”
When someone tweeted Cox’s thread to Everette’ she co-signed it, tweeting the U.S. Big Brother account and saying, “Let’s try it.” Perhaps one day, the U.S. version of the show will be able to fix the glaring issues it has in regards to representation.
Big Brother airs Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays on CBS.
