Photo: Ben Symons/Peacock
Buzzfeed is facing backlash over a "disturbing" and "anti-Black" social media post about Love Island USA star Chelley Bissainte.
On Wednesday (July 9), Buzzfeed's Tasty, the company's food-focused media brand, shared an Instagram post highlighting what type of breakfast meal they would make for Chelley and her fellow season 7 co-stars in the villa.
"As any 'Love Island' watcher knows, the contestants NEVER forget to eat their breakfast. But while their mans are the ones cooking them the delicious meal every morning, I'm showing you the breakfasts I would make the girls instead," the caption of the post read.
Chelley's breakfast slide included a bowl of fruit, Goldfish "in case Ace [who she's currently coupled up with on the show] gets fussy," and a knuckle sandwich, which was depicted as a white fist in between two buns.
Social media users quickly called out the Buzzfeed account for the "disturbing" knuckle sandwich graphic and condemned the media company for linking Chelley, a Black woman, to violence.
In a statement, Chelley's team said Buzzfeed was "hinting at domestic violence" since the male contestants typically make breakfast for the women they're pursuing on the show.
"It's not only disturbing, disgusting, and unacceptable. It is the harsh reality that implicit biases can be rooted in anti-blackness, misogyny, prejudice, violence, etc.," Chelley's team said of the Instagram post.
After swift backlash, Buzzfeed's Tasty deleted its original post, replacing the knuckle sandwich with pancakes. The account noted in the caption that one of the "jokes" in its initial post "missed the mark."
"We referenced a 'knuckle sandwich' in our slide about Chelley, and we thought it meant to be cheeky, it landed with racial tones that we didn't intend (but should have seen it coming)," the caption on the follow-up post read in part.
Chelley's team called out Buzzfeed for releasing a second post "with a condescending message and tone of no accountability." Buzzfeed Tasty later wiped the follow-up post from its account.
"Team Chelley will not tolerate this level of disrespect, anti-blackness, prejudice, and misogyny. Futhermore, we will not accept a narrative in which Chelley deserves violence. No person deserves that. Not Chelley or any of the other islanders," their statement reads.
The statement also called for the responsible parties to issue a "sincere apology and take steps of accountability to ensure this does not happen in the future."
See more reactions to BuzzFeed suggesting that Chelley needs a knuckle sandwich below.
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