Though reality TV thrives on drama, what lingers long after the cameras stop rolling isn’t always the messy arguments or flirtatious plot twists, but the way contestants are treated when the stakes are highest. During the Love Island USA Season 7 reunion, the tension between islanders made for buzzworthy television, but beneath the surface was something far more telling: the striking lack of allyship shown toward the Black women in the room, from the scrutiny about their looks and appearance to the mean girl allegations that led to a violent spew of racism online.

Olandria Carthen and Michelle “Chelley” Bissainthe carried the double burden of navigating both the pressures of reality TV fame and the stereotypes that cling to Black women in media. On the reunion stage, that dynamic played o

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