‘There is zero tolerance in the house for using a racial slur’
A contestant on Big Brother 25 in the US has been booted off the show after he used a racial slur during a 24-hour live feed.
Viewers of the 24/7 coverage of the house heard Luke Valentine use the word n**** while talking to his housemates.
In a clip shared widely on social media, Valentine, who is white, can be seen talking to fellow contestants Jared Fields, Cory Wurtenberger, and Hisam Goueli.
While addressing them, he is heard using the derogatory term.
In the footage from Tuesday (7 August) night, Valentine says: “We were in the f**king cheese room, n****.”
Catching himself, Valentine quickly backtracked and replaced the slur with the word ‘dude’ before apologising to one of the housemates.
Later on, Fields, who is Black, told Valentine he wasn’t too fussed by his use of the slur, but said he should have made him feel much worse about it than he did.
“I don’t give a f**k,” Fields said.
“Yeah, right, I should’ve made you feel uncomfortable real quick, like, ‘Whoa, bro, what you just say?’”
Although Fields didn’t seems to take much offense to Valentine’s words, viewers at home were left outraged.
Many took to social media to call for the contestant to be removed from the show, including season 15 winner Andy Herren who said production should “set an example.”
“Go ahead and replace him,” said one fan.
Another commented: “He gotta go”.
A third criticised the show’s producers for not immediately reacting to Valentine’s remarks, saying: “Shame on the Big Brother production team if they let the Luke incident go by without a single word said to him. Accountability is a MUST here.”
CBS, the network that airs the reality show, have since confirmed that Valentine has been removed from the house and will not feature in the series again.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the broadcaster said: “Luke violated the Big Brother code of conduct and there is zero tolerance in the house for using a racial slur. He has been removed from the house.”
They added that his departure will be “addressed in Thursday night’s show.”
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