Love Island USA Must Do More to Protect Black Women

Love Island USA would not exist without Black women. Their viral moments, reads at the fire-pit, and ability to shape pop culture in their image are the stuff of marketing executives' dreams. Within the timespan of a summer, Season 8’s core four—Trinity Tatum, Kayda Bosse, Aniya Harvey, and Melanie Moreno—gained millions of followers across social media platforms, signed deals with major talent agencies, and received widespread coverage across mainstream media publications. The Love Island USA effect is not limited to these four women. The show has also brought notoriety and fame to their male partners and other Islanders, as well. But the breakout stars of the Peacock dating series are experiencing these phenomena on another level, with built-in fanbases that follow and support every campaign they take part in, both on and off social media. In a landscape where fame equates to followers and followers equate to money, these four Black women are raking in the profits and new opportunities their newfound fame has brought, and Black women are to thank for it. But even as their fans prop them up, it often seems as though they are taken for granted by other Islanders, those cast members...