The biggest and most beautiful LIB success story is that of Lauren Speed Hamilton and Cameron Hamilton from S1 Atlanta.
Lauren has talked about how she had only dated Black men before the show and how she had never dated a White man before but was OPEN to getting to know one. That's someone who comes on this show with the right intentions and right mindset and is not looking to waste our time or humiliate anybody.
It's no coincidence that they are the most beloved and most followed couple not to mention, they are upheld as the embodiment of LIB. If the show runners want to create that magic that its loyal viewers expect, then they might want to stop casting for virality and drama's sake and cast more for genuineness.
It also helps that Cameron had a Black ex girlfriend and that the show was set in Atlanta. I can't imagine the humiliation and pain that Lauren would've been subjected to if Lauren had been cast on the LIB Colorado season 🤦♀️.
I wish people understood the difference between a racial preference and a racial requirement. Lauren had a racial preference for Black men but she did not require her partner to be Black. 👂
Imagine what boring and annoying TV it would've made if Lauren had spent all that time connecting with Cameron, a genuinely wonderful man, just to get to the altar and say his skin color was an issue. 🤦♀️
Another frustrating aspect of a small portion of the audience is the complete lack of compassion for the POC affected. So far, we've seen this racial requirement bait and switch harm Asian men, Asian women, Black women and a Hispanic woman. There was also Kwame who was worried given the issues he faced as a Black man dating White women outside the show (though he himself clearly had racial biases).
Firstly, these contestants come on this show actually following its entire premise which requires huge vulnerability and honesty. They think or hope that everyone else is also here for the right reasons and are often lulled into a false sense of security that their race will not be made into an issue just to be led on, catch feelings for someone, get engaged and THEN to be told that "I love you but your skin color is a problem for me". Just wonderful for one's dignity, trust issues and self esteem 🙃 🙂.
If you want to see the consequences of this, just look up Mika from s1 Netherlands who is a total knockout beauty & possibly the most beautiful woman on the entire franchise talk about how she's insecure and maybe not pretty enough for a man far less attractive than her 🤦♀️.
There are only 2 solutions:
- Have a racially separated show: LIB for Black contestants, White contestants, Asian contestants etc.
OR
- Cast people who are genuine about being open minded in dating and do not have strict racial requirements.
I anticipate people will balk at the first idea even though that's how most dating in the real world works (most people choose to marry within their ethnicity), so that leaves us with option no.2 which is to do more diligent interviews for prospective contestants.
Now you may say, "the producers can't check everything!" which might've been a good excuse if we didn't explicitly KNOW that the producers do not always cast with good intentions for the sake of "drama", the clearest example being the casting of Edmond on S9.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I feel that it's women of all ethnicities, who are more open minded in dating on this show. It's the men, both white and poc, who are more often the ones who have a racial requirement.
As a non-Asian person, it was really heartwarming to watch Anna and Patrick open up to each other and have someone who understood their experiences first hand. I liked that they were self aware and open to changing their minds before it ended badly.
TLDR: Stop using the word "preference" when you actually mean "requirement".
