On Big Brother 15, the show was severely tarnished by constant reports of the HG’s offensive and racist comments. At the center was Aaryn who mocked Asian and African-American HGs while others used offensive language like referring to women as the “c” word or making jokes about Hitler and pedophiles. Now there seems to be a disturbing parallel to the current season as several Big Brother 18 HGs have been making some very off-color comments.
The controversy started before the season started with fans finding several tweets from Corey using the gay “f” word in a joking manner. Then when the live feeds started, he laughed while telling a story about him and his buddies setting a goat on fire.
On top of that, several HGs have repeatedly used the “r” word while a lot of the guys frequently refer to women colloquially as bitches. But things got even more heated late Tuesday/early Wednesday.
It all started with Victor making a comment about Natalie’s pants, making her upset. He apologized, but allegedly during that meeting, James told others, including Bronte, that Victor asked Nicole out on a date (the live feeds didn’t capture that moment).
This lit a firestorm as Victor and Paul freaked out, wanting to confront James and yell at him, though their allies Jozea and Bronte talked them down. The end result is that James is now their number one target.
And the animosity towards James hit a boiling point when Bronte snickered and said to Jozea that “I’ll send [James] back to Hong Kong.” He’s from Texas. A few minutes later she started to repeat herself, but corrected it and changed it to “I’ll send him back to…whatever little place he comes from.” I guess that’s better, but the following morning she once again mentioned sending him back to Hong Kong.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Jozea, who is on the block, was explaining to Paul why African-American HG Da’Vonne will vote to keep him (in reality, she’s planning on evicting him). Jozea insisted that she “isn’t gonna want to work with Caucasians,” saying that the reason she was evicted on season 17 was because she was the only black person on her cast. Jozea has repeatedly referenced the common background and color of their skin as a reason he, Da’Vonne, and Zakiyah have such a tight bond (again, both of those women are working against him and want him gone).
This seems like a good time to point out that Jozea has only watched season 16 and isn’t familiar with Da’Vonne’s first time on the show, where her closest, ride-or-die ally was Jason Roy, who is white. Similarly, many of these other HGs like Paul, Victor, Bronte, and Natalie seem to have only see the last season or two, meaning they’re probably oblivious to the controversy surrounding season 15.
The overnight comments created a firestorm on Twitter, with many comparing the racist remarks to those made on Big Brother 15. That’s a comparison the show’s producers definitely don’t want. However, it’s interesting that this year the game has an anonymous power to nominate a third person (like the MVP twist from season 15) as well as two siblings of previous contestants (like Rachel Reilly’s sister Elissa on season 15). Those are unrelated to HGs making racist remarks, but they only serve to reinforce the similarities between the two seasons.
UPDATE: To be comprehensive with all comments, Zakiyah was doing her eye make-up a few days ago and mentioning making them look like “ch***y eyes,” a derogatory slur for Asians. And while telling a story, Victor, in passing and not really with malicious intent, used the N-word. Also, back on the first day of live feeds, Corey said that something was “gay,” but Jozea, who was there, actually did call him out on it.
Will this continue? Will any of these horrible comments make it onto the TV show? The only sliver of good news for CBS is that one of the people involved in this, Jozea, is probably going to be evicted this week while Bronte, who at least seemed to recognize her bad judgment, is one of the top targets for the powerful, large alliance in the game.
But even if these HGs are evicted early, the comments are definitely an unwanted headache for Big Brother 18 and a bad sign for the long season to come.
(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.
