MTV has fired Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta star Erica Mena after she made a racial slur on a recent episode. The incident involved Erica having a massive argument with her co-star Spice. After the episode aired, fans demanded repercussions and MTV let her go.
Here is what Erica said and why her termination is so controversial.
Erica Mena fired by MTV after racial slur
Erica Mena has undergone her fair share of problems recently. She was arrested in late August along with Bambi Richardson and charged with several charges, including obstruction of law enforcement and battery on a police officer. Mena was the only one charged with attacking the officer. Now, her life just got a bit tougher as she just lost her long-running job on Love & Hip-Hop.
The reason came because of an incident that happened in a recent episode where she was fighting with co-star Spice. The argument was about whether Erica’s son King loved her or not and when Spice said he didn’t love her, Erica flipped out. She literally flipped over a table and then launched into a tirade against Spice. She called her a “blue monkey” and made monkey sounds at her. Because “monkey” is a derogatory term for a Black person, this sent fans into a rage.
The complication here is that Erica is from Afro-Latina, coming from Puerto Rican/Dominican ancestry while Spice is a Black woman. After fans launched into demands online that actions be taken, Love & Hip-Hop released a statement about the situation and effectively fired Erica Mena from the series she has been on since 2018.
There is controversy surrounding Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta firing Erica
In its statement on social media, Love & Hip-Hop said that it never shies away from “hard conversation” and works with its partners in this. The statement then said that Erica’s comments impact will play out in the final three episodes of this season of Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta. However, it finished by saying, “[Erica] will not appear in the next season of Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta.”
However, there is a lot of controversy surrounding this decision. As with most reality TV shows, things are filmed in advance. This means that MTV had this footage all this time, edited it into the series episode, and did nothing to Erica until it caused a backlash from fans. Many wondered if Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta was setting Erica up by airing this moment in the series.
Make sure to catch new episodes of Love & Hip-Hop every Tuesday night on MTV at 8/7c.
Do you think MTV should have fired Erica Mena for what she said on Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta? Do you think MTV was also to blame for the incident? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
