Love Island’s Yewande takes another swipe at rival Lucie and says mis-pronouncing her name ‘is racist and malicious’

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LOVE Island’s Yewande Biala has today taken another swipe at rival Lucie Donlan, saying that mis-pronouncing her name is “racist and malicious”.

It all started earlier this week when the Irish scientist-and-reality star, 25, said she had to “correct” Lucie on how she said her name “multiple times”.

Love Island star Yewande has accused Lucie Donlan of mispronouncing her name multiple times

Now, Yewande has spoken again about the issue in a column for The Independent.

She wrote: “There is a longstanding history of forced assimilation as a way to maintain the power structure.

“Dominant groups dismissing certain names as “too hard” is tied to racism and other forms of oppression.

She also said: “When someone doesn’t take the time to learn the proper way to pronounce another person’s name, or worse – intentionally mocks it for being “too difficult” to pronounce, or tries to ascribe another name to make themselves feel comfortable – it can come across as malicious.”

It all started earlier this week when Yewande said she had to “correct” Lucie on how she said her name “multiple times”

It all started when Yewande shared a lengthy tweet where she described her experience of joining a new school as a youngster – and being asked to go by her middle name, Elizabeth, instead of her first name.

She then vowed to ensure people knew the importance of her name – which means ‘mother coming back’ – from then on, as it was part of her identity.

She continued: “This is the last thing I’m going to say about this situation…

“Examples of name-based micro aggressions include giving unwanted nicknames. 

The scientist, 25, posted a lengthy statement on Twitter

Stunning Yewande also said it was the last thing she’d say about her ongoing feud with Lucie

“It’s important to recognise that asking for a nickname can feel invalidating, it makes me feel like an inconvenience, also ascribing a nickname to a person or participating in radicalised re-naming can be distressing.

“You as an oppressor, have stripped me of my identity, you’ve taken my power in choosing how I want to be addressed.

“I corrected her [Lucie] multiple times, I didn’t mind, because you are going to get it right.”

Yewande went on to allege a specific incident with Lucie during the filming of Love Island – after which she was comforted by an ITV2 producer.

Lucie said she had been “bullied” by Yewande, to which Yewande said Lucie had not properly learned her name
In her post, Yewande alleged a specific incident during Love Island filming in 2019

She wrote: “There was a moment just before a challenge. This was after three weeks in. 

“She mispronounced my name, I correct her again and her reply was ‘yeah whatever you know what I mean’. I remember one of the producers putting her arms around me. 

“Being black on TV means not rising you voice, not being too defensive, because you don’t want to creative the narrative of being an angry black woman or being a bully.

“I am not a bully, it’s such a huge accusation and one that should be handled very seriously.

Yewande on Love Island, next to Amber Gill, who spoke out in her defence

“And lastly, I encourage everyone to be aware of radicalised renaming and name-based teasing.”

The secret rift between Yewande and Lucie first came to light after a fan asked Lucie on social media: “How do you feel about Yewande saying you’re a horrible person?”

Lucie responded: “She’s always bullied me. I’m not bothered about her opinion… makes her look bad. Not sure where she said that though!”

However, Yewande didn’t take the bullying claim lying down, clapping back: “You refused to call me by my name because it was too ‘hard to pronounce’ now you wanna say I bullied you!! Bullied” – alongside an angry face emoji.

It appears Yewande (second left) and Lucie (right) did not get along in the villa

And Love Island’s 2019 winner Amber Gill was quick to leap to Yewande’s defence.

“Na when she said can I call you ‘Y’ I said lol no you can’t, can I just call you ‘her’, you were peaceful in that exchange,” Amber tweeted. “It was me with the vim.” 

Since the feud began, Cornish surfer Lucie revealed she’d started receiving death threats.

The 23-year-old influencer told MailOnline: “These are really old comments dug up purely to incite a row between two females.

“In this day and age and with everything going on in the world, we should all be sticking together not attacking each other.

“I’ve been sent death threats which are incredibly scary as you can imagine.”

The 2019 series of Love Island has had its fair share of feuds. Both Yewande and Lucie have had run-ins with fellow contestant Molly-Mae Hague.

Lucie’s started in the villa after she made advances towards Molly’s boyfriend Tommy Fury – and Yewande’s was revealed after Molly didn’t invite her to her PrettyLittleThing launch party.