The third season of Netflix’s reality television show, The Circle, is out now. The Circle is a social media competition determined by how well-liked a person is based solely on their social media profile. The major twist is that contestants can disguise their social media profiles to either play as a catfish or themselves. Season three of The Circle followed a new set of contestants who competed against each other for the coveted influencer spot and a chance to win $100,000.
Microaggressions on The Circle
The Circle began to spark discourse amongst Twitter users about the racist undertones of certain contestants’ actions and behaviors. After searching up The Circle on Twitter, one of the first responses to pop up is The Circle “racist.” The discourse surrounding The Circle being racist comes from the multiple non-black contestants who demonstrated microaggressions towards the Black contestants. The first example of this comes from the non-black contestants feeling threatened by the success of the Black contestants.
“The Circle be feeling racist at times. Why do they always see Black people as the biggest threats/competition.”
Twitter user @dancecentric
The second example comes from the alliances formed between the contestants. One of the main alliances formed consisted of a majority of white contestants (Nick, Sophia, Rachel, & Matthew) who united to eliminate the Black/POC alliance (Kai, Ruksana, Calvin, Daniel, & James). Call it a coincidence or not, but this racial divide between the two alliances did not translate well to viewers. Many viewers on Twitter spoke out about the racist undertones these alliances presented.
“How do you make an all-white people group chat and leave all the minorities out just to sit and diss a black girl”.
Twitter user User @jaquelq2
These microaggressions pose the question of whether “The Circle Is Racist?” or if the actions and behaviors of certain contestants are racially motivated?
Kai Ghost playing as herself 
Ruksana Carroll playing as herself 
Calvin Crooks playing as himself 
Daniel Cusimano playing as himself 
James Jefferson playing as himself but “single” 
Nick Uhlenhuth playing as himself 
Matthew Pappadia playing as his “bisexual best friend Ashley” 
Sophia Layne playing as her “older sister Isabella” 
Rachel Ward playing as her “best friends boyfriend Jackson”
If you want to read more stories like this, follow MEFeater on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for more content!
