A contestant on the current season of Big Brother has been kicked out of the house for using a racial slur.
Luke Valentine has been removed from the set of the 25th season of the CBS summer reality series.
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“Luke violated the Big Brother code of conduct and there is zero tolerance in the house for using a racial slur,” CBS confirmed in a statement. “He has been removed from the house. His departure will be addressed in Thursday night’s show.”
As first reported by TMZ, Valentine used the N-word in the middle of a conversation with the other houseguests: “I’m in the fucking cheese room [N-word]” and then corrected himself to say, “dude.” He then told Jared Fields, a Black contestant, that saying the word was “a slip of the tongue” and apologized. “I don’t give a fuck,” Jared reportedly replied. “I’m in trouble now,” Valentine said, “I’ve been in worse trouble.”
This is hardly the first racially charged controversy in the history of Big Brother, which has periodically had similar controversies since it first launched in the U.S. in 2000. Over the years, the debate has shifted from letting contestants freely show their ugliest sides in the annual reality TV “experiment,” to CBS’ current “zero tolerance” policy.
In 2019, contestant Kemi Fakunle accused a producer of encouraging her to use a stereotypical Black accent and said fellow houseguests made “degrading and threatening comments.”
In 2018, houseguest Kaitlyn Herman used the N-word when quoting a Drake song. At the time, CBS said: “Big Brother is a reality show about watching a group of people who have no privacy 24/7 — and capturing every unfiltered moment and conversation in their lives. At times, the houseguests reveal prejudices and exhibit behavior that we do not condone. The producers have addressed two such incidents that were seen recently on the 24/7 online feed. In both cases, those involved have been warned about their inappropriate behavior and offensive comments, as well as future consequences. These events will not be part of any future Big Brother broadcast on CBS.”
Back in 2013, The New York Times headlined a story “On Big Brother, Racial and Gay Slurs Abound,” which noted, “several participants have been overheard making racist, sexist and homophobic comments about others in the house.”
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