‘Survivor’ Cast Member Opens Up About Rough Childhood

A former Survivor contestant is speaking out about her time on the show, including that she feels she was cast to be the “angry Black woman” in the cast. She also opens up about her rough childhood, including being present when her father died by suicide when she was really little.

Jolanda Jones Recalls Her Heartbreaking Adolescence

Attorney @JonesJolanda analyzes how #MeToo movement will affect #BillCosby retrialFOX 26 News anchors Tom Zizka, Melissa Wilson and Sally MacDonald interview attorney Jolanda Jones about the retrial of comedian Bill Cosby.2018-04-12T02:00:24Z

Jolanda Jones was a contestant on Survivor: Palau, the 10th season of Survivor that aired back in spring 2005. Her CBS profile touts her many successes — she was an All-American in both track & field and basketball in high school, she won an unprecedented three NCAA heptathlon championships in college, she graduated both high school and college magna cum laude, and in 1995, she graduated with a law degree from the University of Houston Law Center. At the time she was cast on Survivor, Jones was working as a lawyer and community activist.

But her childhood and adolescence were riddled with tragedy. When she was just a year old, she witnessed her father’s death by suicide. Over the years, two of her uncles also died by suicide and one of her aunts was murdered.

Then while she was at the top of her game as a track star, an abusive relationship forced her out of competing for seven years, according to her CBS bio.

Just when she was getting back into competing by qualifying for the 1996 Olympic Trials, her 19-year-old brother was murdered two weeks before the competition and it derailed her training. She was forced to withdraw from the competition due to severe dehydration. And in 2000, her niece died of SIDS.

But Jones credits her mother and grandmother for teaching her how to overcome adversity and stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves.

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Jones gave an update on herself since her time on the show, writing, “Jolanda fights for the least, last and lost in whatever endeavor she partakes. She is both a survivor of and advocate against domestic abuse and violence. She is also an out and proud lesbian and accordingly she is an LGBT+ activist. She is also a human rights and criminal justice activist. Before there was a Black Lives Matter movement, she fought for Black Lives, including giving Know Your Rights with the Police trainings, which she started giving in 1999, based on what she saw representing her clients.

“Jolanda’s biggest accomplishment is her son, Jiovanni. Although she raised him as a single parent and struggled to do so, he is now a third-year law student and he works for her in the crucial arena of social justice. Jolanda works hard and smart at everything she puts her mind to and helps people along the way no matter the obstacles.”

She Greatly Objects to the Way She Was Portrayed on the Show

Survivor: Palau – Schoolyard Pick Part 1Jonathan Libby: 19/20th Place, Season 10 Wanda Shirk: 19/20th Place, Season 102018-07-14T04:00:24Z

She tells Entertainment Weekly that she had no idea she was going to be portrayed as the “angry Black woman” on Survivor and she wants to fight against the “systemic racism” on the show as well as in real-life.

“My edit, and that of so many other Black people, caused me to organize the BSA and move to end systematic racism on Survivor. Mark Burnett foreshadowed portraying me as a ‘b*tch,’ his word not mine, and I didn’t figure out that that was what he was actually going to do because I hadn’t watched previous Survivor. I actually thought Survivor honestly portrayed players. I was wrong,” wrote Jones.

She also said that coming back into the real world after filming was easy, but once the show aired, she has “spent years trying to change the narrative/storyline that Survivor created.”

Jones added that the season that made her the saddest to watch was season 14 because three Black players made it to the final three. “The systematic/systemic racism, implicit bias, and microaggressions shown throughout the editing but especially during the final Tribal were so hard to watch. The thickness of the racism could be cut with a knife,” said Jones.

As for changes she would make to the show, Jones said that they need to have a “culturally competent staff, at all levels … so that any and all discomfort felt by the players ONLY has to do with gameplay and not color.”

She also said she’d only play again if the cast was diverse — and diversity ” does not mean the majority of the cast is white with a mixture of other races.”

Survivor hopes to film season 41 in the spring of 2021 for a fall 2021 premiere.

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