Racism always comes to the Big Brother house sooner or later. With all the alcohol, cameras and claustrophobia, tempers are always going to flare up. But this week, that happened a lot sooner than expected when Braden blew up at Kevin and used a derogatory Mexican slur for the half black, half Japanese gay man. I guess he had to, since there are no bigoted slurs to describe blacks, the Japanese and gays.
Blaming Braden and isolating him like he was the Outbreak virus is easy, as is standing up and saying that anyone who votes for him is a dirty racist. But this wasn’t all Braden’s fault. Yes, he fired the bullet, but there were other people involved who bought and loaded the gun, drove him to the Texas School Book Depository and told him what time to pull the trigger.
Russell:
For some reason, Russell seems to think he’s a master of deception and manipulation, and that if he wants someone to do something, all he has to do is bully them into submission. Too bad for him it didn’t work with Jeff, as Russell’s “tecnotronics” outburst just made him look like a crazy person.
So then he moved on to Braden, and sadly, Braden’s sieve-like brain couldn’t match the slightly less stupid Russell. The confrontation with Lydia never would have escalated if Russell hadn’t prompted it. The bigger tragedy is that, because it worked, it gave Russell a false sense of accomplishment.
He’s the typical jock who inflates his ego by picking on small, weak little nerds and dorks. It’s easy to pick on someone weaker or smaller or dumber than you are, but Russell seems to think that if he can beat someone, he can beat everyone.
Lydia:
I had a lot of respect for Lydia when she shamelessly massaged her way into the good graces of the jocks and did nothing more than mention Braden, which instantly made all the jocks think backdooring the surfer was the cleverest thing they’ve ever heard. I can appreciate when idiots are taken advantage of.
But what I hate is self-righteousness. First, being called a skank isn’t exactly the worst offense of all-time. The way Lydia reacted, you’d think Braden had just defecated on her mother’s grave while punching a baby kitten.
Even worse than that was the way Lydia then decided to attack Jordan and Jeff for absolutely no reason. They had no idea what just transpired, and even if they did, they are not responsible for Braden’s words and actions. Her logic was stunningly offensive, that by not denouncing and disassociating themselves from Braden, they were condoning and agreeing with what he said.
I guess that means Lydia and Kevin both voted for John McCain in the recent presidential election. After all, Barack Obama palled around with terrorists and he went to the church of a guy who said “God damn America.” Therefore, using Lydia’s logic, President Obama is a terrorist.
Kevin:
I know blaming the victim is tacky, but in this case, I’m willing to make an exception. The truth is that Braden and Lydia were having an argument over the way she played the game, and for no reason, Kevin stuck his nose in where it didn’t belong. He allegedly felt some moral obligation to defend Lydia after Braden called her a skank.
First, I’m pretty sure Lydia can handle herself, and if she needed back-up, a flamboyant gay blackanese graphic designer is probably not the first person she’d think of to join her posse. Second, let’s stop this BFF nonsense. Kevin and Lydia were in the Big Brother house for about a week, and yet he is delusional to think they’re BFFs and he has to show her blind and unwavering support at all times?
That kind of instant co-dependency is unhealthy, as is the fact that Kevin got so worked up over the word “skank.” As a gay, half black, half Japanese former Jeohvah’s Witness, I would assume he’s heard a lot worse than “skank.” For that matter, he’s probably heard a lot worse than “beaner,” which is actually almost funny because it’s so stupid.
My point is that the situation never should have come up. Braden shouldn’t have fallen for Russell’s lies, Lydia shouldn’t have tried to hold the moral high ground when she actually did throw Braden under the bus for no reason other than to save herself, and Kevin should’ve minded his own business. If clear thinking, logic or reason had come up in any of these situations, the fight never would’ve happened.
But then we wouldn’t have had Chima’s best nominee speech ever, so in the end, maybe a few racist slurs were worth it just for the sake of good TV.
-John Kubicek, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image courtesy of CBS)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
