In a new podcast interview, dumped Love Island lad Blu Chegini responded to people’s claims that he is “racist” for telling Alima Gagigo she’s “not my type on paper.”
Blu was one of the first lads to enter the Love Island villa at the start of this season, his entry bio reading: “Someone who is family oriented, has a lot of love to give and a lot of love to receive. Personality goes a long way.” During the very first episode, the ITV show was smacked with criticism after Blu’s less than enthusiastic response to Alima picking him to couple up with.
“Every girl looks beautiful,” he responded as host Maya Jama ensured he had actually understood the moment with, “Yes, but Alima chose you.”
When chatting to Alima a bit later around the fire pit, Blu said she wasn’t his “usual” type, despite earlier saying he didn’t have one. Naturally, people picked up on the huge backtrack, sharing their thoughts on Twitter.
“As a white girl, I can’t understand how there are men out there who say they don’t find black women attractive. Isn’t that just racism? I think Blu is racist :/ How can you say you don’t have a type but say Alima isn’t your type. Idk,” one person wrote.
Another said: “Bro wth???????? Love Island UK really topped up their racism this year because why are these white people acting like they want to jump off a cliff because they got paired with black people???????”
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Blu was dumped from the island just a few days later, and he’s since responded to the racist claims during an appearance on the Secure The Insecure Podcast.
Love Island’s Blu responds to the Alima backlash
In the podcast interview, Blu acknowledged that in his intro, he had stipulated “no type” to the Love Island producers. Despite that, and after clocking the negative press around his backtracking moment, he said, “So I got a lot of backlash for that, but if she’s not my type, then she’s not my type”
Let’s pretend his statement actually makes sense and move on to what else he said.
“People are calling me racist, and I’m not racist,” he said. “I’ve had growing up in another country and being called a foreigner all the time, so I know how that feels. I’m half Persian, half Italian. I’ve got a super cultured family. Not one bit of racist bone in my body.”
Blu noted how the positives of the Love Island experience outweighed the negative backlash. He said the people around him know he’s not racist.
Credit: ITV
“We had a lot of conversations, Alima and I, and she said I’m not her type, and she wasn’t my type, and people take what they want,” he added.
So, were people buying it?
After snippets of the interview were shared by The Shade Borough on Instagram, people discussed Blu’s statement in the comments about Alima not being his type.
“Man really said he knows how that feels because he used to get called a foreigner. I can’t,” one person wrote.
Another said: “He’s got black mates blah blah blah we know the script already.”
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“I understand that Alima is not his type, but in your interview, you did say you didn’t have a type, and suddenly a black girl is there, and now you have a type. Just very contradictory. A beautiful black queen made you realise that you do have a type and it ain’t black. Very confusing indeed,” a third argued.
In contrast, others questioned “how racism entered the chat” because there was “nothing wrong” with Blu’s response.
“Why is it wrong to say she’s not his type wtf,” one person said, as another wrote, “It is not a crime to have a type, why are people making it a thing?”
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Featured image credit: ITV/Secure The Insecure Podcast.
