Supply: Courtesy / Paramount
The Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta solid sat down for a critical dialogue on the influence and hurt of former co-star Erica Mena utilizing a racial slur.
In a publish shared on Instagram Sept. 26, castmates unpacked the aftermath of Erica calling Spice a “monkey” and making animal noises on the Grammy-nominated dancehall artist — a dark-skinned Black girl, a mom and previously Erica’s buddy.
The solid collectively thought Spice saying Erica was a nasty mom to her eldest little one didn’t warrant a racially charged response, which is rarely acceptable. Present vet Kirk Frost mentioned, “Simply because somebody goes low doesn’t imply you’ll be able to go to hell.”
Kirk’s spouse, Rasheeda, famous that the slur turned Erica and Spice’s argument from a “one on one” into “one towards the tradition.”
“It’s not simply me Erica got here for. It’s a whole race,” Spice emphasised. “[The racial slur] is deeply rooted in [the] Black historical past of how they used to dehumanize us. How they used to promote us and contemplate us animals.”
Yandy Smith mentioned she tried to coach Erica in regards to the dangerous historical past behind calling Black individuals monkeys, however the Tubi actress was unreceptive to taking accountably for her vitriolic language.
Throughout a post-Season-11-finale particular known as Love & Hip Hop: Racism, Colorism, and the Uncomfortable Fact, stars from the Atlanta franchise additional mentioned Erica’s utilization of a racial slur.
The particular was a roundtable dialogue led by Dr. Sarah L. Webb, founding father of the Colorism Therapeutic initiative.
Spice, Yandy, Yung Joc, Scrappy, Sierra Gates and Amy Luciani all shared views on Erica’s reported hate speech and the circumstances surrounding it.
Erica and her camp have felt that her firing from Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta is hypocritical. She additionally shared with Yandy that she didn’t really feel any regret for her actions.
Within the feedback part of an Instagram publish teasing the roundtable dialogue, shared Sept. 26, Erica claimed producers nonetheless had her filming scenes as much as seven months after her incident with Spice. The New York native accused MTV of utilizing her as a storyline for “the entire second half” of Season 11.
“They selected to edit it how they needed and aired it. It’s solely now that they’re determined, making an attempt to save lots of face and utilizing me to take action. If I’m getting used to set an instance, why was I not part of this ’roundtable’ dialogue?” the mom of two questioned. “[The] solely motive a press release was even made by the community was as a result of [of] the backlash. Not as a result of they honestly believed what I mentioned was a racial slur.”
Erica added that her castmates have mentioned issues that had been “simply as unhealthy” as her slur and accused Yandy of calling her “an ass monkey” in a 2015 Hot97 interview.
“I gave this franchise 13 plus years, and now they should save face. So that they’re gonna put on my identify out on this to make up for his or her fuck up. And the reality in all of this — this franchise has at all times depicted us as zoo animals anyway,” Erica said.
Her consultant, Steve Honig, moreover instructed Radar On-line that it was “very disappointing” Erica wasn’t included within the roundtable dialogue.
The rep accused MTV of silencing Erica’s voice and mentioned the roundtable dialogue was a missed alternative at a “invaluable second of studying for all.”
Spice adopted up on Erica’s prolonged Instagram remark with one in every of her personal. The Queen of Dancehall claimed Erica had a 10-year historical past “of calling Black individuals monkeys.”
“Google is free. Spice shouldn’t be chargeable for what’s at all times on the tip of Erica’s tongue every time she needs to insult a Black particular person. Saying your son don’t such as you, and my son loves me. [That] by no means known as for all of the issues she was saying. Y’all arguing over a a number of months previous episode,” Spice exhaustedly famous.
The utilization of racially charged language is an ongoing subject within the actuality TV realm. Learn extra under.
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