Black people being paired together on Love Island is not racist – so put a sock in it, says Mercy Muroki

Yesterday at nine o'clock, I was faced with a decision. A very serious decision.

Do I watch the first episode of Love Island or do I watch Sir Graham Brady in the 1922 Committee room delivering the verdict of the Parliamentary Conservative Party on the leadership of Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Tough choice – Love Island, or the 1922 Committee?

One is a bunch of self-obsessed guys and girls in front of cameras, desperately seeking affirmation from the public and hoping to not get humiliated by being booted out of the House – the other is… well, Love Island.

But – eventually – I did settle for the 1922 Committee.

And it means that as I was watching that psychodrama unfold, I missed another psychodrama unfolding in Love Island.

Or more specifically, on Twitter.

Now, for those who don’t know – the basis of Love Island is that a group of men and women who don't know each other get thrown into a villa, and they choose someone to couple up with – each week, they decide whether to stick with the person they’ve chosen, or couple up with someone else.

The contestants who don’t get picked are booted off the show.

Now apparently in the opening night of Love Island last night, ITV left it to a public vote to match each of the contestants.

But when the public paired up the two black female contestants with the two black male contestants – some viewers were not happy.

“So are we going to talk about the black guys that were only paired with black girls? Sorry, do better England. The fact Love Island let it happen says a lot as well," one tweeter chirped.

One tweeter even likened the public pairing of the two black couples to eugenics.

Oh, children, let’s all calm down shall we.

There’s no winning in this game. Let’s work through this – if a black person couples with another black person, they’re open to accusations of racism against white people.

If a black person couples with a white person, they’re accused by other black people of not wanting to date in their own race.

If a white person couple with a black person – they’re accused of having a fetish. If a white person couples with a white person – well, they’re probably a racist.

Goodness me, what an awful headache these people are.

Maybe, just maybe, the public matched the two black women with the two black guys because same-race couples are simply the norm.

It’s true.

Interracial couples – where the individuals are of a different race – only account for around seven percent of relationships in England and Wales.

In fact, in the census for which we have a full analysis, couples where one person was Caribbean and the other was white British only made up two per cent of all inter-ethnic relationships.

It is therefore a statistical fact – whether we like it or not – that the overwhelming majority of people date within their race.

And at a basic logical level, it is safe to assume that any given person has a significantly high likelihood of dating preferring to date someone of their own race.

But don’t let facts get in the way.

I am of course not suggesting people ought to stick to their own race – I’m merely stating fact.

I’m sure no right-minded person would ever suggest, for instance, that I should be barred from dating white men.

Just imagine how many hearts that would break!

What I am saying is that – not everything is racially motivated.

And when I want to wind down by watching some trash TV at nine o’clock at night, the last thing I want is to hear an in depth analysis about the racially motivated relationship preferences of the British public.

With all due respect, put a sock in it and give it a rest.