Big Brother contestant Luke Valentine has joined the list of contestants no one wants to be associated with as he let slip the N-word in the middle of a conversation.
While he tried to laugh it off, it’s not really the kind of word that would slip out of your mouth unless you say it regularly. You can see the awkward clip here.
Viewers are calling for the housemate to be removed for the slur, and many have taken to X to voice their complaints.
“the fact it slipped so easily out of his mouth it’s not his first time saying it either. He needs to be ejected. only a matter of time bf he does something else questionable. #bb25”
“HOW is it 2023 and this Man doesn’t know THIS IS NOT OK?!?!”
Of course, for those who watch Big Brother, this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. It seems that almost every year, there is a racist contestant who somehow manages to worm their way in amongst the others. Among those who had complaints about Valentine, there were those who pointed to the show’s past.
“At this point I’m starting to think they cast 1 or 2 problematic people on purpose to get all these articles written cuz ain’t no way…”
“It happens pretty much every season. Their casting is trash.”
“it only took 6 days to end up here again smh”
It’s a pretty regular occurrence on the show. The trouble is the producers never seem to do anything about it. Just a quick glance at previous housemates who have dropped the N-word on camera and you’ll quickly see that none of them were ever evicted or appropriately punished for their abusive language.
Back in 2018, contestant Kaitlyn Herman casually dropped the word while quoting a Drake song and was not removed from the house despite the backlash. She’s not the only example; last year, Kyle Capener was at the center of fan backlash after his comments about race caused outrage. I could go into detail on all of the contestants who have behaved inappropriately on the show, but this article would be the length of a small novel, so I’ll get to the point: none of them were evicted.
The history of Big Brother sort of gives us a hint as to how the show’s creators will react to this latest controversy: they will probably do nothing. However, it’s worth noting that outside of the U.S., housemates in the Big Brother house have faced consequences for racist behavior. Emily Parr found herself ejected from the house after using the N-word. The same went for Celebrity Big Brother contestant Rodrigo Alves (aka the human Ken doll), who used racist language during his time in the house. It seems the U.K. version of Big Brother has no problem ejecting racist contestants — perhaps the U.S. version could learn a thing or two.