Love Island USA season 7 controversy: Cierra Ortega kicked out from the show after racist post sparks outrage

The American TV series Love Island USA season 7 has been grabbing attention for all the wrong reasons. The reality show has been rocked by a controversy after one of the contestants, Cierra Ortega, was abruptly removed from the villa following her racial posts from 2015 and 2020 resurfaced on social media. The 25-year-old content creator's old posts sparked outrage, which led producers of the show to act promptly.

What is the controversy surrounding Cierra Ortega all about?

The controversy began when a 2015 Instagram post of Cierra Ortega wrote, "Still ch**kin’ at the top”. The term is a derogatory anti-Asian slur. In 2020, the situation was aggravated further when a TikTok video of hers saying, "I can also be a little ch**ky when I laugh/smile so I love getting a mini brow lift".

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Soon after the posts resurfaced, Cierra faced immediate heat from netizens and demanded to be removed from the show. One user wrote, "Get Cierra Ortega off your show. This is now the third time I'm seeing that she used the slur for Asians. Y'all rightfully kicked off Yulissa for saying the n word, what about Cierra? or does racism against Asians not matter to you guys?" Another user wrote, "not surprised that cierra and nic have lasted so long.. cierra be saying the c slur and nic be saying cats are chinese food. get them out my damn villa now #LoveIslandUSA #loveislandusa #CierraOrtega".

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Cierra Ortega's family issues statement after facing backlash

Soon after the removal of Cierra Ortega from the reality show, her parents took to her official Instagram handle and wrote a lengthy note asking everyone not to give death threats and to show compassion for their daughter.

In the note they mentioned, "While she'll always be our little girl, she's also a woman, one who will take responsibility in her own time and her voice. Until then, we're simply asking for compassion. For patience. For basic human decency. Not just for her. But for everyone caught in the middle of this".

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For the unversed, Love Island is a reality television program where a group of contestants, who are referred to as "Islanders," live in a villa in Fiji. The Islanders are cut off from the outside world and are under constant video surveillance. To survive in the villa, the islanders must be in a relationship with another islander. Apart from Cierra Ortega, Yulissa Escobar was removed from the villa on Day 3 after videos surfaced online of her using racial slurs.