The Racist, Bigoted, Homophobic cast of Big Brother you can't see on tv.

In perhaps record time, Big Brother 15’s houseguests have unleashed a torrent of racist, sexist, and homophobic comments, mostly directed toward other people in the house, and most of which go unchallenged by others. This year, it isn’t limited to just one or two people; as Hamsterwatch reports, “the roll call for racist/homophobic/misogynist remarks now includes Aaryn, Kaitlin, GinaMarie, David, Jeremy, Spencer, and Amanda, in varying degrees.” That’s almost half the cast.

Before we get to the BB15 comments, these will probably never air on television if history is a guide, so we’ll likely get a sanitized version of the houseguests instead of editing that reflects their actual personalities, attitudes, and comments. Executive producer Allison Grodner has explained why the CBS show ignores awfulness from the houseguests: “We really don’t want to put hateful things out there in our edits.” CBS has similarly defended horrible editing.

I appreciate the desire to not perpetuate and repeat bigotry, but that approach baffles me, considering that other shows—Survivor, for one—have dealt with similar bigotry on their broadcasts. The exact language doesn’t have to air, but why not air the conversations? Why not show these people for who they actually are? After all, producers and network executives all approved them and decided to give them 90 days of attention while using them to earn money. Of course, none of that would fit into the narrow rut of a formula the CBS broadcast has stuck to for years and years.

As to the awful things this cast has said, most of it occurred Saturday night and into Sunday. A Jokers poster has compiled an extensive list including flashback times to view the footage, while Zap2it’s Andrea Reiher summarized many of the awful things in a story. Both are worth a read.

Here are examples, compiled and expanded from the above sources, video clips, and other sources:

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Ragan Fox, who was a cast member on the 12th season, asked in an open letter to producers, “What’s the point of casting racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities if production’s going to edit out the racism, ethnic discrimination, and homophobia that these people encounter inside the house?” and added, “If you really want to provide a groundbreaking twist, SHOW CBS VIEWERS HOW SOME STRAIGHT, WHITE PEOPLE talk about gays, Asian Americans, and African Americans.”

Dustin Hoffman on playing a man playing a woman in the film Tootsie.

Dustin Hoffman on playing a woman in Tootsie (1982)

“If I was going to be a woman, I would want to be as beautiful as possible. And they said to me, ‘Uh, that’s as beautiful as we can get you.’ And I went home and started crying to my wife, and I said, ‘I have to make this picture.’ And she said, ‘Why?’ And I said, ‘Because I think I’m an interesting woman when I look at myself on screen, and I know that if I met myself at a party, I would never talk to that character because she doesn’t fulfill, physically, the demands that we’re brought up to think that women have to have in order for us to ask them out.’ She says, ‘What are you saying?’ and I said, ‘There’s too many interesting women I have not had the experience to know in this life because I have been brainwashed.’

It was not what it felt like to be a woman. It was what it felt like to be someone that people didn’t respect, for the wrong reasons. I know it’s a comedy. But comedy’s a serious business.”

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