‘Big Brother’ Contestant Responds to Offensive Comments Made in the Game
Over the years there have been plenty of controversial players in the Big Brother house, and 2019 is no exception.
Jack Matthews has been filling that role in the show’s current 21st season with the comments he’s made about fellow contestants Kemi Fakunle and Isabella Wang. Considered derogatory and racist, Julie Chen decided to broach the topic when [Spoiler] Matthews was evicted during the August 8 broadcast.
Before diving into the comments Matthews made though, Chen had specific clips roll for him to observe for the first time. After the first clip finished, Chen turned to Matthews and noted, “In recap, you called [Kemi] bitch, you called her dog poop — you didn’t use the word ‘poop’ — and we just heard you say you wanted to stomp a mud hole through her chest. Watching that now, what are your thoughts?”
Matthews then launched into his response, apologizing for his offensive tone.
“Okay, well, I will say that the ‘stomp the mud hole’ comment was based on something that Sam [Bledsoe] said last season when she was frustrated, and I don’t think there was any personal vendetta behind saying that,” he began. “I think my statements were playful in a group of people. I do apologize for what I said, and that’s very sincere.”
“I think Kemi was, and is, a great person,” he continued. “I think this game and being in 24-hour view of people and you say things and… um, I wouldn’t say I fully support the things that I said and the way that I said them. If I could take them back, I would, and I wish I could have articulated them in some other way possible. But it doesn’t take away the fact that I don’t think that Kemi is a wonderful person inside and outside of this house, absolutely.”
(Credit: Sonja Flemming/CBS)
But Chen wasn’t through with Matthews yet as she turned the evictee’s attention to another clip from the show in which he embellished a comment while he and a group of other houseguests were talking about Isabella Wang. When one of his fellow contestants mentioned the “proof was in the pudding,” Matthews added “the rice pudding.” Chen noted that viewers took that as an offensive aside that was seen as racist.
“Because Bella is Asian-American,” Chen noted, “and you made the pudding comment — rice pudding — some people thought that was a derogatory statement about her ethnicity. What is your response to that?”
Matthews began his response by saying, “I appreciate you letting me be able to voice my opinion about that. We spoke earlier in the evening. There was the slop thing going on and people were making different recipes earlier in that evening, mainly Tommy and Christy,” he explained. “And rice pudding was spoken about in slop pudding. And so earlier in that evening, rice and slop pudding were going around, so Tommy bringing it up in that situation made me say it there.”
“It had nothing — absolutely nothing — to do with her ethnicity whatsoever,” Matthews claimed. “I appreciate that I get to voice me saying that.”
So what do you think of Matthews’ response and eviction? Let us know in the comments below.
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