‘Love Is Blind’ Continues to Fail Black Women and This Season Proves It

The winter season is upon us, and Netflix is ​​setting the mood for early sunsets and cold nights. The latest season of Love Is Blind captured American hearts—or at least tried to. The show, meant to instill hope for true love without the superficiality, only worked for a certain audience.

This season, released on October 2, follows the love stories of six couples, from their pods to their weddings. Amid criticism that black women rarely get their fairytale endings on the show, Love Is Blind attempted to address the situation this season by featuring four of the six couples featuring black women. Perhaps it was because the show took place in Washington, D.C., also known as “Chocolate City,” or because the producers were aiming for a more diverse cast that deserved recognition.

What seemed like a rare success story for black women on the show—Ashley and Tyler’s romance—turned into yet another example of the franchise’s failures. While Ashley presented herself as a confident, accomplished black woman seeking an authentic partnership, the show’s editing hid important information that could influence her decisions—and the viewers’ decisions. The “sperm donor” revelation, initially presented as a communication hurdle that the couple overcame, turned out to be something much more complicated.

When Bri Thomas, the mother of Tyler’s three children, came forward with evidence that Tyler was an active father—living with his children, signing birth certificates, and being involved in their daily lives shortly before filming began—showed how the show’s desire for “fairytale” storytelling potentially compromised a black woman’s right to full agency. conscious choice regarding your future. Despite Ashley’s insistence Reunion October 30th. that she “knew everything,” the controversy raises troubling questions about how the show presents Black love stories as entertainment.

This model of partial truths and edited reality particularly affects the black female participants, who must navigate not only the usual challenges of finding love on camera, but also the added burden of revealing their partners’ complicated pasts after coming out publicly. The show’s decision to frame Tyler’s parenting status as a simple “sperm donor” situation, rather than exploring the nuanced reality of his co-parenting story, reflects a larger trend toward simplifying black relationships for viewing on television.

And while Ashley’s story dominated the headlines, she wasn’t the only one who faced obstacles on the way to her happy ending. The season’s other Black contestants faced their own issues of transparency, commitment and the show’s familiar pattern of disappointment.

The same thing continued with other couples. What started out as promising interactions, sensual dates, and “I love you” capsules gradually turned into arguments, infidelity, insecurities, and doting mothers (thank you, Marissa’s mom, you truly were that moment). Ultimately, only two of the six couples made it to the altar after relationship problems: one involved a black woman. That’s a 25% success rate among black contestants… damn.

There really is a lot to unpack.

Unfortunately, this season’s disappointments for black women are nothing new in the show’s history. The show started off promising as we put Lauren Speed ​​and Cameron Hamilton’s story on a pedestal. Our good sister hadn’t been in a serious relationship for almost six years before the show, until she met Hamilton. These two hit it off and have since won our hearts time and time again, leaving a glimpse of the love we all hope to experience in our lives.

However, the following seasons failed to reach their heights. We witnessed A.D. Smith (our girl looked amazing at this season’s reunion!) and Clay Gravesand’s dark romance—or not. Clay was afraid of his intentions. AD went on to suffer the ultimate form of public embarrassment after performing Gravesanda at the altar, just to be told no.

A similar dynamic was seen in Marissa and Ramses’ relationship this season, where he was sure he would marry Marissa until he wasn’t. He proposed only to call it off, citing that he wasn’t “heading in the same direction,” but assured Marissa that he wanted to continue the relationship. Their round-robin discussions about commitment ultimately led to a breakup, leaving Marissa’s mom distraught, struggling not to “punch (Ramses) in the throat,” as she revealed at the season reunion. How to go, mom.

The uncertainty about commitment continued into this season with Monica and Steven, who had their share of relationship problems and infidelity. Although they had no idea about each other’s appearance when they entered into an interracial relationship. They were literally two peas in a pod until Stephen was accused of cheating during a sleep test when he drunkenly sent sexually suggestive messages to another woman. This left Monica heartbroken and unsure of who she was engaged to, and the couple announced their separation.

The violin for Black women in the LIB franchise goes beyond this season. Back in Season 5, we witnessed how Aaliyah Cosby and Uche Okoroha’s seemingly perfect pod love story turned into a terrible disaster for Aaliyah. They tried to make their relationship work on and off the show until Aaliyah eventually revealed that Uche didn’t find her attractive and was struggling to make the relationship work. Let me tell you: these two looked alike. It causes self-hatred and I hate it for us. I want nothing more than for black women to be loved out loud.

Are there any black women who enjoyed the beautiful love stories in Love Is Blind? Absolutely. However, it is difficult to watch black women struggle for love in reality AND in experiences that are meant to strip away the superficiality of love: race, income, and the like.

We need to see black women making love that is full of ease, love, and the luxury that allows us to be our feminine and beautiful selves. We need it.

Sullivan Anderson is a recent graduate of the #1 HBCU in the country, North Carolina A&T State University. She has a passion for all things storytelling and loves to spread positive messages through the media. You can catch her doing #blackgirlthings in her free time!