After apologizing for utilizing an “extremely offensive” racist slur that resurfaced throughout her time on Love Island USA, Cierra Ortega addressed on-line criticism as soon as once more.
Taking to her Instagram Tales on Sunday, July 13, the fact TV star pointed a message in the direction of one group specifically. “For many who want hurt on me, I carry nothing however love in my coronary heart,” the controversial Islander started. “What needs to be a collective alternative to deal with derogatory language and the hurt they carry, has as an alternative snowballed into an excuse for cruelty.”
Cierra’s reflection, posted the identical evening Love Island USA season seven got here to an finish, continued, “Nonetheless, I refuse to let distress discover firm right here. I’ll maintain residing with love , presence, and gratitude. Particularly within the painful moments, as a result of they, too, form who we’re.”
The submit was accompanied by a photograph of Cierra, who left the sequence through the July 6 episode when narrator Iain Stirling confirmed that she left the villa “attributable to a private state of affairs,” taken from behind that captured her waving her fingers within the air.
It continued, “I’ve each perception that each one this power may be alchemized into one thing with actual impression. If even a fraction of it was used to uplift the neighborhood instantly impacted — to proceed amplifying Asian voices & their therapeutic — think about how a lot additional we could possibly be as a collective.”
The submit concluded, “Be form to someone at present. And tomorrow. And each day after that. Love will all the time go additional.” Cierra additionally left a pink coronary heart emoji, wrapped in a bandage, on the finish of the message.
A 2024 racist submit from Cierra’s social media resurfaced whereas she was filming Love Island USA in Fiji. About 48 hours after her exit from the present, Cierra addressed the submit in a July 9 Instagram video. “Whereas I used to be within the villa, there have been some posts that resurfaced from my previous the place I used to be very naively utilizing an extremely offensive and derogatory time period,” she stated on the time. “I need to first begin by addressing not simply anybody that I’ve damage or deeply offended — however most significantly — your complete Asian neighborhood. I’m deeply, really, actually, so sorry.”
She additionally stated she didn’t know that what she stated was racially offensive. “I had no concept that the phrase held as a lot ache, as a lot hurt and got here with the historical past that it did or I by no means would have used it,” she stated within the video. “I had no sick intention once I was utilizing it however that’s completely no excuse as a result of intent doesn’t excuse ignorance. It simply doesn’t.”
The video detailed how Cierra obtained a message from a follower who referred to as the slur “extremely hurtful,” alerting her to the impression of her phrases. “At that second, I used to be embarrassed. I — after all — instantly deleted the submit,” she defined. “I used to be apologetic and I educated not solely myself on the true that means and the historical past of the phrase but in addition anybody round me who was by accident a holding house for this slur.”
The apology video continued, “My expertise within the villa was nothing in need of magical. The reminiscences I made and the individuals I met are ones I’ll cherish without end. Whereas I’m heartbroken my journey needed to be minimize quick, I perceive that errors, particularly ones like this, deserve penalties. As soon as once more, to the Asian neighborhood, I’m deeply sorry for my inconsiderate mistake and the hurt it induced.”
