‘Big Brother 24’ Fans Accuse Paloma of ‘Gaslighting’ After She Denies Allegations of Racism
The first two weeks of Big Brother 24 were brutal to watch. Many viewers accused the houseguests of unfairly targeting Taylor Hale based on her race and gender. And a lot of the behavior could be traced back to Paloma Aguilar declaring her dislike of Taylor on night one of Big Brother 24. Now that she is out of the house, fans want Paloma to own up to her controversial actions.
Paloma targeted Taylor in ‘Big Brother 24’
The moment that Paloma saw Taylor in the Big Brother 24 house, she didn’t like her. She partnered up with Alyssa Snider, and they routinely made fun of Taylor’s pageant past. They also determined that she wasn’t a “girls girl,” so they preached women empowerment while trying to target a woman.
After Paloma started spreading lies about Taylor, the hatred for her grew. Many claimed that Taylor would “explode” once put on the block and that she was “aggressive,” so they needed to get her out. However, Taylor never showed such behavior.
Microaggressions ran rampant throughout the Big Brother house, and many fans criticized Paloma for starting the Taylor hate. But during the first week, Paloma’s mental health took a hit, and she pulled herself from the game. Now, she has to address the allegations of racism fans have thrown her way.
The former houseguest released a statement following her exit
On July 26, Paloma made an Instagram post where she discussed her experiences in the Big Brother 24 house. It contained photos of the cast and videos of her in the game. It also originally included a meme that read, “My face when I realized I’ve been labeled a racist and vilified after leaving the BB house.” Paloma deleted it from the post, but you can find it on Twitter.
Paloma’s Instagram caption reads:
“Nothing but love for this beautiful cast. I genuinely have come out of this experience with only good things to say about each individual; aside from any game play that was talked. It is such a shame how social media tries to tear a person down through cancel culture because of the way things were being portrayed to fit a narrative for ‘good TV.’ People see it as ‘the ultimate truth of reality’ when in actuality everything is cut to fit the narrative they want, even the live feeds cut from room to room when things are said that can jeopardize the storyline their going with. (studied at Berkeley MediaST10). I left because of an ongoing mental health battle I faced which began once inside the walls of an idealistic utopia of a reality set. A reality that was far from the reality of my San Diego life. I became so quickly obsessed with the game — I forgot how to take care of myself. FOMO consumed my every move. I would get 2-4 hours of sleep at night — no normal human could function off of (sleeping hours are 10pm-10am but everyone keeps each other up gaming), I did not see the sun for 5 days so I began to loose touch with reality, there’s no windows, and 100 cameras working 24/7 — even when you’re sleeping — ate me alive. No one understands the psychological challenge of reality television unless you have first hand EXPERIENCED it. Mental health is something I believe I must stand up for with my platform because it is so stigmatized and belittled in a world where the majority of us face something mental health related in secrecy. I will be addressing more of my time in the house little by little — but I want to thank everyone for their love and support during an extremely hard time.”
‘Big Brother 24’ fans aren’t happy with how Paloma addressed the controversy
Since Paloma deflected the criticism of her behavior in Big Brother 24, fans continue to condemn her.
In one Reddit post, a fan wrote, “Seems like she didn’t learn a lot. I wish her well with her recovery, though. It would probably be better for her mental health to stay off social media for a bit … Also not sure what else she plans on revealing ‘little by little’ considering she was in the house for 20 minutes.”
Another person added, “I wish her well, but I was hoping she would take more accountability. They can’t edit things in that she hasn’t done.”
“She’s legit gaslighting the public,” one Reddit user said. “The edit on the show painted her in a very sympathetic way too.”
A different fan commented, “She can’t even explain the things she said that the feeds DID show. Girl is in some serious denial.”
New episodes of Big Brother 24 airs Sundays and Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET and Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS.
