You and Gevin are being completely ridiculous. It is not racism to say that the show is too white. There is no Countdown gene in the DNA of white men that automatically makes them better at the game than women, people of colour, etc, but when it comes to octochamps/finallists and contestants on the show, it's overwhelmingly dominated by white men (to an extent that is completely unrepresentative of the population). So it's important to ask what societal reasons* are behind this lack of representation on the show, and it's also important to recognise that these societal reasons make it easier for white men to go on the show than it does for other people. While I can't say for certain, I can certainly imagine that seeing more black contestants on the show, for example, with some winning games and maybe even becoming octochamps, could potentially inspire other black people to become part of the CD community. This is also true for BAME people wanting to work in broadcasting, and/or popular science or lexicography.L'oisleatch McGraw wrote: ↑Sat Dec 05, 2020 4:47 amHold on a sec. This is the sort of racism that people are cool with, right?
It's hard to keep up.
Furthermore, the societal reasons which cause the unrepresentative make-up of people on Countdown, University Challenge (and many other game/quiz shows) are not independent of the racism, misogyny, and various other bigotries that have existed in Britain** throughout the centuries. Instead, they are one of the many, many ways in which bigotry has warped our society. If you defend the status quo and argue against measures to have a more representative set of contestants/finallists/presenting staff, then you have to recognise that you're campaigning for a status quo that has privileged white men more than any other and has been achieved at least somewhat through both casual and more overt forms of discrimination.
I want to make a few things clear when I talk about redressing the balance of contestants. Firstly, you can all relax, I'm not saying any one octochamp/contestant/series winner is the problem, it's the cumulative effect of all of those octochamps/series winners. Secondly, any 'affirmative action' regarding contestant selection would be extremely unlikely to affect anybody who is good enough to win 8 games, they would still get on the show. It'd have an impact more on 'less skilled' contestants who only last a game or two, that's where concerns about diversity would impact who is selected. Ultimately, it's a complex, societal problem, so while I'm sure the show is doing and is looking at other ways to diversify the people on- and off-screen, Countdown cannot solve discrimination by itself.
Finally, Channel 4 is not just a private broadcaster that has no statutory duties to fulfill, https://www.channel4.com/corporate/abou ... -channel-4. You'll see that their statutory public service remits include reflecting the cultural diversity of the UK.
*Didn't want to clog up the post with a list of societal reasons. I've mentioned one in the same paragraph, I'll mention a couple more here. How people comment about you when you appear on the show. You see it with UC, how women are subjected to comments about their appearance, which they've not asked for, on a show that tests intellect (and we know how some people talk about Rachel and Susie); others could get comments about the colour of their skin. Another is how white-male-dominated quiz, Apterous, Scrabble, crosswords, and 'generally nerdy' pursuits are, and how those are generally seen as places for men.
**If you seriously think Britain has never been a bigoted society, then I think you need your head examining. More diplomatically, I suggest you read about the atrocities of the empire; about Britain's role in the slave trade (for example, a historian I know through quizzing has written about the myths surrounding Britain's abolition of the slave trade, https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-in ... 1847925718); about incidents like the Bristol bus boycott; the numerous racist comments of Churchill (Winston, not the dog in the adverts); or about Islamophobia, transphobia, antisemitism (and many, many other phobias) in the Tory and Labour parties, for example. Windrush scandal, Theresa May's Go Home vans, racist profiling against black people by the Met Police when it comes to Stop and Search. I could keep going all day.