‘The Challenge’: Fans Think Dee Nguyen Is Being Treated Unfairly After Her Firing
Those who’ve been keeping up with The Challenge: Total Madness know MTV has severed ties with Dee Nguyen. Nguyen made massive missteps on her social media by making light of the Black Lives Matter movement. And she’s since made public apologies and removed herself from social media.
While Nguyen was rightfully fired for her posts, fans are wondering if she’s OK now. Here’s what they’re saying.
Dee Nguyen was fired from MTV for racially-charged Twitter posts
Nguyen is known for her inflammatory posts, and Challenge couple Bayleigh Dayton and Chris “Swaggy C” Williams have both called her out for trying to gain fame and clout with her posts. Unfortunately, right around the social media movement Blackout Tuesday, Nguyen made a huge misstep. She made a tasteless Black Lives Matter joke that did not go over well with fans or MTV production.
“Idk why some of u think I’m anti BLM. I’ve been saying that since the day I lost my virginity,” Nguyen tweeted.
“This is not how you support BLM,” Dayton tweeted in response. “I’m disgusted and disappointed. This is not a trend. This is life or death for us.”
MTV then took matters into their own hands and notified the public that they cut ties with Nguyen. They’ve also edited Nguyen out of future Total Madness episodes as much as possible.
Wes Bergmann noted her mental health was in decline after the firing
Wes Bergmann was Nguyen’s closest ally on the show, and Nguyen was staying in one of his homes to take part in his Patreon web series while everyone was quarantined. He gave his fans updates on Nguyen via Twitter after the firing. And he noted that she wasn’t taking it well.
“Dee was basically my daughter,” Bergmann explained on Twitter. “I made the decision to ask her to leave in less than an hour.” He then went into how he was helping her with her mental state.
“Her mental health by this time had deteriorated to a level where being in a hotel alone would have been the most dangerous option of all,” Bergmann added. He also noted that helped Nguyen talk to “a doctor, a hotline, a CEO, and a lawyer.” Ultimately, she ended up in a “mental health lodge” that could help her navigate her firing and next steps. Bergmann then added that he believes Nguyen will be heading back to her home country of Australia after all is said and done.
Some fans think MTV went overboard
Nguyen was getting mixed reviews from fans of The Challenge long before the Black Lives Matter scandal. Now, many are wondering if she’s OK, as she’s been suspiciously quiet on social media. And others think MTV isn’t treating Nguyen fairly.
“It’s wild how they still have the disclaimer before every episode calling her out,” a Reddit user noted. They then called attention to a past situation where racism was a severe issue on the show. “What she said was stupid, but it wasn’t even that bad, especially compared to what Camilla said to Leroy a few years ago.”
“They’re using her as a scapegoat,” another mentioned. “The backlash is way overblown at this point.”
“Dee had no ill will towards the black community based off of that tweet. She was just really ignorant to the importance of the BLM,” another wrote. “Banning her for life was dumb. They could have used this as a chance to allow her to learn and grow from this.”
We’re hoping MTV reevaluates every racist remark and action from competitors going forward. And we’re also hopeful that Nguyen has learned from this experience and has more knowledge of the movement now.
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