“Basketball Wives” star Evelyn Lozada is facing some backlash after nicknaming fellow cast member Cece Gutierrez with a racial slur.
A heated exchange between the two occurred on Sunday’s episode when Lozada confronted Gutierrez over a comment she allegedly made regarding her lack of work.
Gutierrez, who denied the accusation, suspected that co-star Kristen Scott spilled details of their private conversation.
“First of all, I never said that no one else in the group works or doesn’t work,” she said. “And if Evelyn knows about this private conversation that I had with Kristen, that means Kristen told her and that’s shady.”
“Kristen you are stabbing me in the back like always.”
Things escalated when Lozada probed about a nickname Gutierrez allegedly gave her and castmate Jennifer Williams.
“So let me ask you one last thing. So I heard you have a new nickname for me, what is it?”
“Oh it’s not a new name,” Gutierrez answered. “Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber?”
The brawl turned worse as Lozada retaliated and accused Gutierrez of being fake.
“You always have a problem, Evil-lyn,” Gutierrez said.
To that, Lozada snapped back with an offensive slur.
“No, I have a problem with you. I have a problem with you Lee-Lee!”
Gutierrez, a Filipino nurse, learned from co-star Malaysia Pargo that Lozada referenced a nail shop technician.
“Evelyn is really showing me what kind of a mean and nasty girl she is,” Gutierrez said. “To call somebody names just because of their race or where they’re from… It really shows how disgusting she is.”
Viewers immediately slammed Lozada as racist and even launched a petition calling on executive producer Shaunie O’Neal to dismiss her from the VH1 reality show.
“This racial comment ‘SLUR’ is unacceptable, especially from a show with a majority female and minority cast. Regardless of being Black, White, skinny, fat, diabetes, gay, lesbian, transgender, ASIAN… It’s unacceptable to make fun of someone because of these things, and Ms. Lozada has done this on multiple occasions throughout the show’s runtime.
“If not, expect the show to drop in massive ratings, as we the viewers will not tolerate sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, fat-shaming, or any other type of harassment and injustice.”
The petition has 1,643 out of 2,500 signatures as of this writing.
Others called out Lozada on Twitter:
Featured Images via YouTube / VH1
