Big Brother 27 Star Deflects Blame Amid Ableist Slur Controversy

Big Brother 27’s first evicted houseguest, Zae Friedrich, spoke with Screen Rant about his use of an ableist slur in the BB house, but deflected blame surrounding the controversy. While Zae, who entered the Big Brother 27 house with 15 other new players and one veteran roughly two weeks ago, has been upfront about his behavior in the game, one thing shocked viewers.

While it wasn’t shown during the weekly episodes of Big Brother, Zae was caught on the BB live feeds using an ableist slur and quickly corrected himself, explaining it was “one of the [words] I was working on not saying,” to fellow houseguest Keanu Soto. While Zae explained “it’s something I did say and I do feel bad about,” he also deflected the blame.

“When I’m around people that are, you know, kind of cussing a lot and things like that, I kind of fall into that. It’s really easy to. Offensive words [are] something that I wanted to keep out of my vocabulary,” he shared, explaining that the Big Brother house can influence unexpected behavior. Zae took some accountability, but tried to blame the environment.

What Zae Friedrich’s Deflection After Using Slur Means For Big Brother

He’s Trying, In Part, To Blame The Show

While Zae’s explanation of his use of an ableist slur wasn’t entirely without accountability, the idea that living in the Big Brother house is chaotic enough to spark someone to use inappropriate language is a tough idea to swallow. Zae, who was candid about regretting the slur, made it clear that he’s apologetic, but may not be grasping the root issue.

Throughout Zae’s time in the Big Brother house, the rest of the houseguests were in the same chaotic environment and didn’t have the same issues in slipping up and using damaging language. Unfortunately for Zae, the chaos theory may not hold as much water as it has in the past. The chaos of BB is a part of the game.

Though it can be tough to keep cool in such a pressurized environment, trying to excuse some of the blame by blaming the house and its overwhelming nature isn’t the best approach to taking accountability. While it’s likely Zae wasn’t trying to inherently blame anyone else for his behavior, deflecting in the first place could cause issues for the show moving forward.

Our Take On Zae Friedrich’s Explanation After Big Brother Eviction

He’s Not Understanding The Root Of The Problem

Although Zae was open about using the slur and regretting his behavior, it seems that he isn’t getting the root cause of why people are upset with him. Using a slur so flippantly, even catching yourself in the moment and then apologizing, is something damaging to a large community of people, some who enjoy Big Brother as an escape from their daily lives.

With Zae deflecting some of the blame on the environment of Big Brother 27’s house and houseguests, it’s clear that he wasn’t thinking about the piece of the puzzle that focuses specifically on him. Zae opened up about sharing that there were other words he wasn’t looking to use, but his Big Brother journey may boil down to this tough incident.