'Big Brother' Winner Taylor Hale Says Contestants Should Own Racism on Show

Taylor Hale -- the first Black woman to win "Big Brother" -- says the show certainly has a racism problem, but thinks there's an easier way to deal with it besides outright canceling.

We talked to the reality show winner, who took home an $800k cash prize last year, in L.A. about what she made of a recurring theme on 'BB' lately ... namely, white contestants continuing to say problematic things about fellow Black competitors year in and year out.

Taylor says she's definitely aware of that trend but doesn't think it's unique to the famous CBS series. On the contrary, she says it's simply a microcosm of American society.

Interestingly enough ... TH also doesn't think the racism and/or microaggressions -- of which she fell victim to on several occasions -- are a cardinal sin in and of themselves in the context of the show. In fact, Taylor says it's a strategic tactic that could be used to win.

What she does take issue with, however, is when people get called out for it ... only to try and deny any wrongdoing. In her eyes, if folks just owned their bad behavior and chalked it up to competition ... they'd probably come out on the other side relatively unscathed.

It's a fascinating take ... basically, Taylor sounds like a realist here -- noting that racism absolutely exists, but also pointing out that people showing their true biased colors in the course of the show isn't as big a deal as Twitter makes it out to be each season.

Case by case, of course ... sometimes contestants say/do things that are actually cancelable -- and when they do, they're booted ASAP. Taylor says 'BB' handles all this well enough.