Cierra Ortega Posts Death Threats She Was Sent After Love Island USA
She says things have "snowballed into an excuse for cruelty."
Content warning: An image in this post includes messages that mention sexual assault, suicide, and racial violence.
Cierra Ortega is giving everyone a peek into what her DMs look like after she was removed from Love Island USA Season 7. The bombshell, who exited the villa after social media posts of her using an anti-Asian slur resurfaced, posted the threatening messages she has received amid the controversy. Along with the vitriol, she posted a note about how she’s dealing with the “cruelty.”
Cierra first addressed the reason behind her departure from Love Island in a video on July 9. She claimed to not have knowledge the word she used in multiple Instagram posts was a racial slur, but resolved to take accountability. “I am deeply, truly, honestly, so sorry,” Cierra said. “I had no idea that the word held as much pain, as much harm, and came with as much history that it did, or I never would have used it. I had no ill intention while I was using it, but that’s absolutely no excuse, because intent doesn’t excuse ignorance.”
In the lengthy video, Cierra also mentioned she’s “receiving death threats,” and her family has “had ICE called on them.” A couple days later, the reality star provided proof, posting a collection of threatening anonymous messages to her Instagram Story on July 13.
In a follow-up note, Cierra wrote that she is not letting the hate get to her, and hopes the energy can instead be “alchemized” into spreading more understanding about the harm done to the Asian community by flippant slurs.
“What should be a collective opportunity to address derrogatory [sic] language and the harm they carry, has instead snowballed into an excuse for cruelty,” Cierra wrote. “I have every belief that all this energy can be alchemized into something with real impact. If even a fraction of it was used to uplift the community directly impacted — to continue amplifying Asian voices & their healing — imagine how much further we could be as a collective.”
