HomeBad Ass AsiansJulie Chen calls out "rice pudding" comment about Asian American houseguest
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Julie Chen calls out “rice pudding” comment about Asian American houseguest

Isabella Wang (CBS Photo)

Big Brother host Julie Chen questioned ousted contestant Jack Matthews during his exit interview this week about racist comments he made about his housemates.

Matthews referred to Isabella Wang, the only Asian American houseguest on the reality program, as “the rice pudding” during an episode in late July.

“I appreciate you letting me be able to voice my opinion about that,” he said. “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. 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. I appreciate that I get to voice me saying that.”

Earlier in the interviews, Chen asked Matthews about his remarks directed towards a Black contestant, Kemi Fakunle.

“You called her b****, you called her dog poop and we just heard you say you wanted to stomp a mudhole through her chest. Watching that now, what are your thoughts?” asked Chen.

Jack Matthews (CBS Photo)

“Okay, well, I will say that the ‘stomp the mudhole 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. I think my statements were playful in a group of people,” he said. “I do apologize for what I said, and that’s very sincere. I think Kemi was, and is, a great person. 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. But it doesn’t take away the fact that I do think that Kemi is a wonderful person inside and outside of this house, absolutely.”

You can watch the entire interview here.

Big Brother is a show that thrives on controversy, and Chen’s interview only added to it.

Chen used the term “gyp” during her interview, a term considered a slur against gypsies.

Pop Culture pointed out that several found irony in the use of that term.

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