Yewande Biala speaks out about racial renaming

Love Island 2019 star Yewande Biala has spoken out about why Lucie Donlan repeatedly refusing to use her name was so harmful.

Yewande Biala Speaks Out
© yewande_biala
Yewande Biala Speaks Out

Back in January, Yewande revealed that Lucie Donlan repeatedly refused to call her by her name whilst in the villa because it was ‘too hard to pronounce’. Her claims were backed up by fellow Islanders Amber Gill and Amy Hart who confirmed that Lucie had asked to call Yewande ‘Y’ or ‘her’.

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In her defence, Lucie said ‘It's just what I'm like’ and accused Yewande and other girls in the villa of bullying her. Speaking as part of a mental health panel at a Cambridge Union event this week, Yewande addressed the issue and the impact it had again.

Yewande speaks out about racial renaming

She said:

When it comes to racially renaming there's not enough that's said and it's not talked about enough. A lot of people don't think it's a thing but it affects so many people from minorities and they go away thinking, 'I can't really address that. That's not really a thing or I shouldn't say much I don't want to seem like a drama queen.'

Yewande continued:

Sometimes you might not know it's a micro-aggression but it makes you feel horrible inside and you know that person shouldn't have said that but you don't know how to handle it. It's so important to have someone that's able to stand up and say, 'No you shouldn't feel like this. That's a micro aggression.'

Amy Hart: ‘We knew it wasn’t right’

She was backed up by fellow panellist Amy Hart, who was also in the 2019 villa. Amy said:

At the time we knew it wasn't right. We talked about it privately when we went out for dinner and stuff but it was never our story to tell. So when you spoke out about it that was when we were like, 'We've been waiting for this one.'
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