People have been talking about racism a lot lately, for very obvious reasons.
Some of this talk has involved bringing up old incidences of racism from famous people, and because of that, some of those famous people have been seeing some consequences for their words and actions.
We all saw what happened with the Vanderpump Rules cast, and Teen Mom, a franchise known for holding onto problematic cast members, has even fired Taylor Selfridge for some old racist tweets.
Some people think MTV should get rid of some other Teen Mom cast members as well, and Kailyn Lowry is high on that list.
And Briana DeJesus has a thing or two to say about it all …
1.
Mortal Enemies
Briana DeJesus and Kailyn Lowry have never gotten along, and there are a lot of reasons for that.
2.
This Guy
Javi dated Briana after he and Kailyn got divorced, and Kailyn thought they were both very disrespectful to her during all of this.
3.
Ugh
It didn’t help that at one point, he was hooking up with both of them.
4.
Throwing Down
Kailyn and Briana nearly got into physical fights more than once, and they’ve exchanged plenty of insults.
5.
Hold Up
More on that in a bit, but right now, let’s switch gears real fast and talk about why people think Kailyn is racist.
6.
Yikes
One big thing is a resurfaced clip from an old episode of Teen Mom 2 in which Kailyn complained about how Jo Rivera had their son’s hair cut.
7.
Not Great
“When he goes over,” she told Jo, “you have him dress a certain way, you have him look a certain way, you have his hair cut a certain way, and that’s not who he is. I think you forget about the fact that he’s half-white and he’s half-Hispanic. Like, I feel like you dress him a stereotypical way, and I don’t like it. … You dress him like a thug.”
8.
Oh No
And there was a period in time a few years back where she’d draw a brown stick figure in her photos and called it “Brown Bae.” When someone tweeted her about it, she actually said “I’m only down with the brown.”
9.
Oh
She’s also filed orders of protection against all three fathers of her children, who all happen to be men of color.
10.
Hmm
We’re not sure what happened when she filed the one against Chris, and Javi’s happened after he broke into her home after they’d filed for divorce, but when she filed the order of protection against Jo, she admitted she did that to send him a message — this was when he first started dating Vee and they’d been struggling with co-parenting.
11.
Yep
And hey, remember this?
12.
Please No
A much more recent (and completely unverified, to be clear) report claims that there are recordings of Kailyn assaulting Chris and calling him the N-word, which she has strongly denied.
13.
Not Having It
Several people have asked MTV to fire her, and she’s gotten so much backlash that she’s deleted her entire Twitter account.
14.
There It Is
And one of the people speaking out against her is none other than Briana DeJesus.
15.
Unbelievable
It started when Briana tweeted the clip of Kailyn telling Jo that he made Isaac look “like a thug.” Along with the video, she asked “Wtf did I just watch?”, which is a fair question.
16.
Also Fair
Someone accused her of trying to get Kailyn fired, but Briana answered with “She won’t get fired. Mtv favors her too much.”
17.
Facts
She’s not wrong — MTV obviously has an incredibly hard time firing main cast members, even when they do absolutely horrific things. Just look at Amber Portwood.
18.
Going Off
And now, in a new statement, Briana is sharing more about how she feels about Kailyn and this new controversy.
19.
Speaking Out
Briana began her statement by saying “In the current state of things being brought to light regarding racism, it would be wrong of me to not bring up Kailyn Lowry’s racist behavior.”
20.
Right On
“I do not condone her labeling Hispanics as thuggish,” she said plainly.
21.
Boom
“In the same vein,” she continued, “she called my family ratchet. I do not for one second believe that was just a random dig.”
22.
More Information
In case you weren’t aware, Briana and her family are Puerto Rican, and while the word “ratchet” has been a popular insult for the past few years, there are definitely some racial undertones to it.
23.
Some History
The “ratchet” remark happened when Kailyn and Briana had their first argument during a Teen Mom 2 reunion, right when Briana and Javi had first started talking.
24.
Go Brittany
When the episode aired two years back, Briana’s sister, Brittany, even called Kailyn out for this, tweeting “When an ethnic person goes off it’s called being ghetto/ratchet…BUT LET A WHITE PERSON SAY OR DO SOME SH-T AND ITS NOT A PROBLEM.”
25.
Back to Briana
Anyway, Briana said in this new statement that in regards to Kailyn’s words back then, “Every bone in my body believes that was racially motivated.”
26.
Uh Oh
“Look at the footage of her claiming Javi Marroquin’s ‘darker skin’ would clash with certain colors,” she said — we can’t find the footage she’s referring to here, but it looks like this was something Kailyn said when she and Javi got married.
27.
Well
“This is clearly an issue she’s had prior to me and perhaps that’s why she had an extra issue with me- aside from the fact that her ex was interested in me,” Briana continued.
28.
More Points
She then added that “I also want to mention that when we had the fight on the reunion, my family was told to go home and Kail was allowed to stay.”
29.
A Valid Argument?
Some people are arguing that Briana’s family was asked to leave because Brittany was the only one who actually got physical — she pulled Kailyn’s hair, but security was able to stop anyone else from getting to each other.
30.
Nope
Still, Briana said “I 100% believe this was racist as well. Kail, being white, has a privilege and it’s always seemed like the other moms are treated differently.”
31.
Coming to Light
“We are in a culture where everything, finally, is coming to light. If we’re really going to let go of those who have exhibited racially motivated discriminatory behavior, I believe in my heart Kail should be included in that group,” she stated.
32.
Making Amends?
She did say that “I would be willing to hear her out for an apology, of course, if it was sincere. I’ve always been open to conversing with her and moving forward, but she has consistently avoided me.”
33.
Interesting
“Think about it- she and Jenelle had major issues, but she was fine to invite Jenelle on her podcast and send her her haircare,” she pointed out. “Me, being the only minority on the show, was left out. Coincidence? You tell me.”
34.
And There We Have It
She concluded her statement with “At the end of the day, if she stays on the show is not my call. But it would be irresponsible of me not to address this.”
35.
Something to Consider
After her statement released, some people argued that she’s just trying to get Kailyn fired because she doesn’t like her, not because she’s speaking out against racism — remember, she’s fine with Jenelle, even after all the awful things she and David have said and done.
36.
Makes Sense
But it also makes sense that she’s speaking out about Kailyn specifically because she does feel that she attacked her personally because of her race.