It has been months since Love Island USA was on air, but season seven has cast an outsized, and more often than not, unfortunate, shadow. What should’ve been over 40 episodes worth of good, clean drama, steamy hookups, with a sprinkling of falling in love has instead spiraled into months of internet discourse and fan-led attacks. Two of the cast members who dominated the culture in and out of the villa were Huda Mustafa and Olandria Carthen. Each girl left the villa with millions of followers and stan accounts keeping up with their every move. Nicolandria Nation will go down in history for its unwavering faith, but the obsessions also led to unfavorable moments, with some stans posting hateful, at times racist memes pitting Carthen and Mustafa against one another. In the villa, the two contestants went from strangers to friends to something akin to frenemies with audiences dissecting every twist and turn of their dynamic, a frenzy that post-villa life has not totally quelled.
Here we break down the latest incident between Carthen, Mustafa, and their fanbase that has the internet talking.
What was the inciting incident?
Huda Mustafa ended her time on Love Island USA season seven in a friendship couple, if we’re being generous, with Chris “I-could-be-playing-ball-overseas-right-now” Seeley. After the villa, she began dating Louis Russell who appeared on season three of Netflix’s Perfect Match. Mustafa made an appearance on Russell’s recent Instagram Live where fans called in during the stream. One of the callers, an unknown number according to a post Mustafa made after the fact, used a racial slur against Olandria Carthen, to which Mustafa and Russell initially laughed at before expressing confusion. The now viral clip of the moment shows Russell saying “Woah, hey, hey,” while Mustafa asks, “What did they say?”
So how did Huda Beauty get involved?
Huda Beauty, announced in September that Mustafa would be an ambassador for the brand’s Easy Bake Loose Powder now released as a duo — “Double the Huda.” For the name play alone the moment was a seamless and synergistic launch, with fans even praising Mustafa for her acting prowess in the accompanying commercial.
In a statement released on October 31, Huda Beauty announced it was severing its partnership with Mustafa. “Unfortunately one of our recent collaborators has displayed behavior that does not align with our values,” the brand wrote in a post on Instagram. “While we don’t believe her actions reflect her character, we found them deeply upsetting.” Since the announcement, Huda Beauty has removed all content related to Mustafa's involvement from stores and their social media. In the caption accompanying the statement the brand continued asserting, “This action was taken not because of any creator or influencer's content, this was taken due to the lack of seriousness around the issue and to people close to us who were offended by the actions during the live. Please remember this is about accountability not canceling people.”
What’s happened since?
Mustafa initially addressed the incident in the immediate aftermath of the livestream through a series of impromptu story posts to Instagram. In text atop closeup selfies, she asserted that she and Russell could not clearly hear what the caller said at first. “Also laughter was because it was AWKWARD,” she wrote. “It was awkward and inappropriate, whoever said it is in the wrong.” Mustafa released a second statement and apology after taking a day to “reflect” and collect her thoughts on the matter. “I want to take this moment to more fully take accountability for my actions. I want to be clear that I do not condone or tolerate anyone who uses such language, and I strongly encourage the individual responsible to reflect deeply on their words and the harm they’ve caused.” She closed the statement with a pledge to make a personal donation to the NAACP and encouraged others to do the same if they felt so compelled.
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Carthen had already responded to the situation before Mustafa’s second statement in her own post, pointing out the slur used, “Words like that carry generations of pain, and pretending otherwise only keeps the cycle going.”
"While I anticipate this will result in surface level apologies that will fade in few days, I’d like to transform this moment into something actionable,” Carthen wrote before going on to encourage the livestream participants and their followers to “demonstrate a genuine commitment to anti-racism by donating to organizations and foundations dedicated to educating and uplifting this community such as UNCF, NAACP, and/or the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.” A call to action Mustafa seemingly heeded.
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Russell, for his part, also issued an apology addressing the situation on his Instagram story on October 29, stating, "As a Black man, I have a greater empathy through my own lived experiences battling racism and the idea that a flustered response to a very unnerving situation could be misinterpreted for me not taking the matter seriously is incredibly disheartening."
Wait, why does this matter again?
Someone could make the argument that it doesn’t — too many elements of culture, often deemed frivolous, are in play: reality stars, beauty brands, and a social media livestream. It wouldn’t be a strong argument, but it could be made. What this saga and truthfully the monoculture around this year’s Love Island USA have made abundantly clear is the ways representation, care, and the insidious presence of racism and anti-Blackness remain an ongoing dialogue for audiences. Carthen’s response and the ever-shifting expectations of how she shows up in the public sphere is one that reflects an experience many Black women and girls find themselves navigating. Ultimately the offending statement was made by someone else, but that it happened on a livestream with Mustafa shows a fanbase that feels some ease in denigrating Black people and attaching that to her image. Ultimately it is on her to ensure the culture that image cultivates isn’t one rooted in bigotry.
What this fallout could more usefully offer us all is an opportunity to recognize and dig into our own shortcomings and blind spots — to potentially grow from a place of sincere regard for one another’s dignity and place in society. Being that this is now the third instance of a racial-slur-related scandal from this cast, this is yet another reminder to all involved parties, from the Love Island USA casting department, to the contestants themselves, to consider the weight of their actions and words.
