Julie Chen talked to David Letterman on his late night show about the controversial Big Brother contestant, Aaryn Gries, who made many racist statements in the house. When Aaryn was eliminated last week, Julie asked the young girl some tough questions about her behavior.
“She’s 22, she’s college-educated. It was shocking and it was astounding to watch because when she first got picked to be one of the housemates, we all thought, ‘Oh, she’s going to be America’s sweetheart.’ She’s a beautiful girl,” said Julie.
Julie was surprised such terrible things were not only said, but in full view of rolling cameras. “Still today, we think we’ve come so far when it comes to race relations and our views,” said Julie, “but the fact that someone who is college-educated can move into a house where they all know … they all know everything they say and do is being broadcast live to the internet and intentionally getting on the network broadcast, to say such ugly things? That’s heartbreaking.”
And on her tense post eviction interview with Julie, Julie said, “I had to just put on my journalist hat and play it straight down the middle and read it back, verbatim, her words,” Julie said. “She did apologize. She seemed dumbfounded by her own words. I do applaud the fact that she said ‘I’m sorry if I offended anyone. But then she talked out of the other side of her mouth and she said, ‘But.’ Any time you apologize and there’s a ‘but,’ to me, it’s not a real apology.”
Julie continued, “She tried to justify it and she said, ‘But I’m from Texas and that’s just how we talk,’ and I thought, ‘The one base you have, you just offended another huge group of people. Guess what? Not everyone from Texas talks like that.”
Dave, as always, summed up the situation succinctly: “The one thing about freedom of speech, it takes care of dumb people.”
Also, a black man who claims to be a friend of Aaryn’s from college insists to TMZ that she is NOT racist.
Shawn Onyechi tells TMZ, he knows Gries from college in Texas and they were pretty close before she left for “Big Brother.”
They didn’t date, but Shawn says they were Valentines this year … and he knows for a fact she’s NOT the racist pig she appeared to be on the reality show.
Shawn even tweeted, “Who thinks Aaryn Gries from big brother is racist? I’ve heard her comments, but personally I KNOW otherwise.”
Hm. Via TMZ
