Twitter Is Thrilled That Big Brother's Julie Chen Called Out Jack’s Behavior

From Oprah Magazine

• Big Brother's season 21 villain Jack Matthews was officially evicted from the Big Brother house on Thursday night.

• In his exit interview, Julie Chen grilled him on all of the racist and derogatory remarks he's made this season.

By a vote of 6 to 2, Big Brother 21 villain Jack Matthews was officially evicted from the house on Thursday night—by Head of Household Jessica Milagros, no less. What’ll happen next? Who knows. With Tommy Bracco as the new HOH and the Six Shooters alliance in shambles, the game—this season sprinkled with undertones of racism, bullying, and misogyny (oh, 2019)—has finally taken quite the sharp turn.

#ButFirst, before we prepare for Sunday’s episode, let’s revisit what left us shook: Jack’s exit interview with Julie Chen. To put it plainly, the cringe-worthy minutes-long showdown felt like watching a high-rise tower get demolished live, with each vanishing floor of the building making us want to sink further into our couches.

Chen, following BB protocol, tends to kinda-sorta brush uncomfortable topics under the rug, but last night she took no prisoners. The longtime host immediately forced Jack to sit on live national television and re-watch the derogatory, racist, mean-spirited, and, of course, controversial comments he’s made about houseguests such Kemi Fakunle and Isabella Wang—although, it should be mentioned he’s also spewed some harsh words about Jessica.

The way in which Julie grilled Jack forced viewers on Twitter so lose it—and finally make some peace with what’s occurred:

Specifically talking about Kemi, Julie told Jack, “You called her b****, you called her dog poop—you didn’t use the word ‘poop’—and we just heard you say you wanted to stomp a mudhole through her chest. Watching that now, what are your thoughts?”

He delivered a very Jack response—not really apologizing and placing the blame on anything but him.

“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.”

That’s not all. She then proceeded to question Jack’s intention when he used the phrase “rice pudding” while talking about Bella, who is Asian American, asking, “What is your response to that?”

“I appreciate you letting me be able to voice my opinion about that,” Jack 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.”

It's badass for CBS to have decided not to go easy on Jack, and for his transgressions to get (at least partially) aired on national television. However, as some fans on Twitter point out, Julie’s interview gave Jack—who, again, we’ve seen deliver some nasty comments—a platform to rid himself of a bad reputation, whereas Bella and Kemi were depicted a little more like…helpless victims who hadn’t quite processed what went down in the house.

Hopefully, the winner of BB is someone who has consistently uplifted fellow houseguests while playing the game well. Justice for Jessica?

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