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Reality TV Got Real When Cierra Ortega’s Slur Hit Home for Asian Viewers
By Kelli Luu | 07 Jul, 2025
Cierra Ortega’s quiet exit from the Love Island Villa has sparked a conversation after her words from an earlier Instagram story post resurfaced and lit a fire in the Asian community.
On Sunday night’s episode of Love Island USA, the people’s voice was definitely heard as narrator Iain Stirling informed the viewers that Cierra Ortega has “left the villa due to a personal situation”. Anyone who’s been online this past week knows what actually occurred.
Love Island fans greeted the news with mixed emotions because they knew her exit wasn’t really a personal matter. It was due to the discovery of a social media post from a few days earlier that had used an anti-Asian slur. It hadn’t taken long for the internet to start talking.
People rushed to TikTok and X to share their opinions and fans un happy with the contestant's use of the slur. A petition to remove her from the Villa amassed over 17,000 digital signatures.
So what exactly did Ortega say?
In a past Instagram story, she posted herself getting cosmetic work done with a caption stating that the procedure she was getting was to fix her slanted eyes, but she didn’t use the word slanted. She used a word historically used to mock Asian facial features — a word many of us Asian Americans have been called in the hallways at school or when someone pulled their eyes back to mock the shape of our eyes.
While she received plenty of hate, others jumped to defend her claiming she “didn’t mean it in that way” or “she probably didn’t know better”. And so the online debate continues. Should Ortega get a pass for using the word? I think absolutely not. Just because it’s not taught in a school textbook doesn’t mean it’s not harmful.
But what has truly been sticking with me isn’t just the slur itself — it’s the fact that so many people didn’t know the word was a slur at all.
I saw TikTok videos of people explaining that they themselves also didn’t know that what she said was a slur. That made my jaw dropped as I didn’t have the luxury of not knowing the word. It was a word tossed at me before I even understood the definition of racism, so I always knew it wasn’t okay.
The whole situation has reminded me how much racism toward the Asian community stays unacknowledged. There shouldn't be a discussion about whether it’s “that bad” just because some people don’t recognize the word. And that’s precisely the problem. The slurs have become so normalized that they generally fly under the radar until they ignite public controversy. I believe if a slur that targets another ethnic group is used casually online, people wouldn’t be debating whether the person who used it knew it was offensive.
Ignorance shouldn’t give one a free pass, especially when it comes to comments that impact an entire community. What people share with Instagram followers are part of their digital footprint, and it’s only natural to expect it get dug up when they go on a national TV show with millions of viewers.
Now I don’t think Cierra Ortega hates Asian people or that she can’t learn and grow from this. Regardless of her intent her words reveal a big problem in our culture. The cycle will only continue if ignorance is left unchecked. As someone who grew up hearing the word and feeling its sting, I wasn’t able to take it in stride. And I am glad to see that I wasn’t the only one.
This incident shows that we are still many steps behind in educating others about the Asian American experience. The everyday racism that we face shouldn’t just be brushed off and it definitely shouldn’t be a debate about the offense taken.
The Asian community, along with many other Love Island fans, weren’t sweeping this one under the rug. Although the show called it a “personal situation”, the producers nevertheless heard the people. This uncomfortable moment has been turned into a teachable, and that’s the best thing to take away from this scandal. Awareness matters, and the biggest reality TV show of the summer is a powerful platform for raising that awareness.
Ignorance shouldn’t give one a free pass, especially when it comes to comments that impact an entire community.
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