Yewande’s Eviction And How The ‘Angry Black Girl’ Narrative Presented Itself On Love Island This Week

Love Island on Monday saw Twitter go into a frenzy when contestant Yewande Biala left the show in a shock eviction. Social media was polarised, with some rushing to Yewande's defence and others who were quick to criticise her.

Yewande was described as ‘spiteful,’ ‘classless’ and ‘nasty’ by some who felt that her reaction to the news that Danny, the man she had coupled up with, had turned his attention to new girl Arabella was too much. To my mind, she was understandably frustrated, and after being laughed and whispered at, Yewande stood up for herself, and maturely approached Danny and Arabella to clear the situation up. In response, Arabella said that Yewande had seemed ’so angry,’ and a large proportion of Love Island Twitter appeared to agree. I don’t, and as a black woman, this is a narrative I am all too familiar with.

For Yewande’s story is not unique, many Black girls have grown up being told to tone themselves down for fear of comments like Arabella’s being made. They’ve been told not to be so loud and not to react out of anger so as not to offend other people, even when their anger is very much justified. They’ve been told not to complain so as not to live up to the “angry black girl” stereotype. The stereotype has silenced many Black girls into being unfairly treated or being made to feel invisible just to make sure others don’t feel uncomfortable. They can never just “be”, without their behaviour being taken as a representation of all other Black girls. We see the same story being played out in the press, for example when Serena Williams was fined for expressing her anger on the court. The problem lies in her being fined a significantly huge amount of money, while other non-black tennis players have had the privilege of voicing their anger with no consequence.

It was interesting to see how much Yewande was berated in contrast to the reaction of Maura’s outburst on the same night. When Tom made a comment about Maura being expressive about her sexuality, suggesting that she was “all talk and no action”, Maura was furious and stormed off swearing at him. Maura’s reaction to the comment was met with praise on Twitter, with her being described as “funny” and being called a “queen” and a “hero”. We have also seen Molly Mae scream at Tommy for flirting with then Newbie Maura, yet Yewande was still labelled as aggressive.

This all makes me wonder if we will ever get to a point in which the “angry black girl” myth is debunked. Prejudice is so far ingrained in our society and TV is one of many spaces where this type of prejudice takes place. I don’t know if reality TV will ever be perfect, after all, 24 hours of the contestant’s time in the villa is squashed into 60 minutes meaning that we may never get an accurate representation of their characters. Elma, who was voted out of the villa, claimed that Yewande “has so much personality” that isn’t being shown on TV. The fact that Elma mentioned Yewande in particular, over all the other contestants, is something that shouldn’t go unnoticed and makes me wonder why perhaps producers have chosen to show us less footage of Yewande.

Yewande’s Love Island journey has been short, but unfortunately not always sweet. After entering the villa, it took her longer than the other girls to find someone she had a connection with. After her date with Danny, we saw her glowing with happiness for the first time, at the prospect of finding something meaningful. We’ve seen her breakdown in tears, we’ve seen her intelligence and at times her insecurity. But ultimately, her experience reminds us that reality TV still has a long way to go before it is truly realistic, inclusive and fair.

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