What happens in Fiji doesn’t stay in Fiji. Especially when what happens is filmed for a reality television show. Now that Love Island USA stars Chelley Bissainthe and Olandria Carthen are back stateside, they’re reflecting on their time in the Villa and processing just how fans reacted to them over the season. In a new interview with Keke Palmer, Chelley and Olandria talked about being labeled “mean girls” by fans and experiencing anti-blackness in the response to the show.
Chelley and Olandria were fan favorites of the season, but fans turned on them after the Standing on Business challenge, calling them mean girls and accusing them of ganging up on Huda, even though they remained pretty calm throughout the exchange. Even their followers on Instagram dropped following the episode. The fan reaction caused many to point out how quick the audience was to turn on two Black women who never even raised their voices.
Speaking with Keke on her Baby, This Is Keke Palmer podcast, Olandria admitted that she felt she had to “tone down” her reactions and feelings because of how audiences are so quick to turn on Black women. “It’s very exhausting to say the least,” she said. “I truly feel like me and Chelley have to tone down a lot to not cross over that boundary.” She continued, “Because a person that looks the opposite of us, as soon as they get emotional, it’s like, ‘Oh, we're going to cater to this person.’ Like, bro, what about us?”
Chelley added that all of their fellow Islanders considered both she and Olandria as people they could confide in and go to for advice—the opposite of mean girls. “To know how your fellow Islanders feel versus coming to the internet and seeing ‘mean girl,’ ‘disrespectful,’ ‘angry,’ this and that, I’m like, ‘Wow, y’all really don’t know us,’” Chelley said.
Keke related, noting that the reaction to Olandria and Chelley was part of a larger discussion on anti-Blackness. “Just because I’m saying something sternly, it doesn’t mean you need to be afraid of me,” Keke explained. “That’s rooted in something that’s anti-Black, and it becomes an issue because now I don’t know how to exist in who I am because I can’t take my skin off.”
“If it was somebody else that [didn’t] look like us and acted like whatever, they wouldn’t be getting as much backlash at all,” Olandria said.
When asked what advice they would give to future Black reality stars who might face the same scrutiny, Olandria admitted, “I don’t know if there’s a way to prepare.” Chelley had a different response, telling future reality stars to “be yourself,” because you won’t have any control on the edit or how the audience reacts anyways. “Stick to who you are, have confidence in yourself and don't let anyone tell you otherwise,” she said.
