Love Is Blind stars Raven Ross and SK Alagbada told BuzzFeed their reaction to Lauren Speed’s claim that the show was “cutting out” Black women.
Last month, the Season 1 alum took to Twitter to claim there was a discrepancy between the number of Black women shown in promotional material and the number of Black women who were actually featured in Season 3.
I don’t like how LIB be cutting all the black women. How come they are always in the trailer but not the show… 👀
“I know it’s slim pickings but about 85% of them couples be forced (just moving forward for entertainment purposes) anyway,” she continued. “Y’all could at least force some more sisters to move forward throughout the show.”
It’s couples that get engaged that aren’t even shown sometimes. I think they only show what they deem most entertaining. https://t.co/sKrYsKMItZ
The allegations prompted a response from Nick Lachey, who said, “It’s a fair observation, but the counterargument to that is that it’s not manipulated in the sense that the people gravitate to who they gravitate to.”
“I have been waiting to address that,” Raven said to BuzzFeed. “I consider myself a Black woman. So it’s hurtful to me. Also, I ended up with an African man. So I’m just confused why they’re talking about race as if we don’t have diversity on the show.”
“I love that that’s a discussion topic, but to me actually being there, I would like to offer that this demographic of women weren’t able to make successful connections not because of the color of their skin or production, but maybe because of the men that were on the other side of the wall.”
She continued, “I’m not throwing anyone under the bus, but we have to build connections through a wall. And if you can’t do that, because people on the other side aren’t looking for what you have to offer, then you aren’t a part of the story. I hate that.”
“It’s not that anyone’s being edited out, there were no other couples that came off of the show — besides the ones that you guys saw. I was genuinely surprised, this was one of the most diverse casts I’ve ever seen, there were so many other Black women, and it was so fun to have this experience with them.”
“Unfortunately, a lot of men cast on the other side weren’t looking for that. There’s receipts of some of these guys specifically saying that that isn’t something that they’re looking for. So, to me, that’s what we should be talking about.”
SK added, “The whole idea of the show is to step beyond places you’d usually don’t consider. Coming from someone who ended up stepping beyond her her color, I was very surprised when I saw that.”
“SK and I are very much people who are rooting for everyone Black. We love that,” Raven continued, “That’s who we are, we really embrace that side of our culture. Just to me personally, as another woman of color, it was such a jab.”
You can read more of our Love Is Blind cast interviews here.
