Read Team Chelley’s Response To BuzzFeed’s ‘Love Island’ Breakfast Post

Turns out, breakfast wasn’t the only thing getting served in the Love Island fandom this week — BuzzFeed Tasty got a full plate of backlash too. On July 9, BuzzFeed’s popular food and recipe brand posted an Instagram carousel titled, “What I Think Each Love Island Girl DESERVES For Breakfast.” But what was meant to be a cute and playful post quickly drew controversy. 

ICYMI: On the slide for islander Michelle “Chelley” Bissainthe, BuzzFeed listed a “knuckle sandwich” as the breakfast she deserves — which many critics believe promoted violence and had racial connotations. BuzzFeed Tasty later replaced the photo of a fist on Chelley’s slide with pancakes and added a caption to the post, saying, “We referenced a ‘knuckle sandwich’ in our slide about Chelley, and though it was meant to be cheeky, it landed with racial undertones that we didn’t intend (but should’ve seen coming).” The post and caption were later deleted.

The original post was in reference to the onscreen drama Chelley has been part of. Just days earlier, Chelley had gotten into a tense confrontation with fellow islander Huda Mustafa, with many fans siding Huda and labeling Chelley the season’s “mean girl.” However, many believe BuzzFeed’s post took the criticism too far. The phrase “knuckle sandwich” is widely understood as slang for a punch — making Chelley’s the only slide to invoke violence against a contestant rather than suggest food for them. The accompanying illustration featured a white fist, which gave the post a disturbing racial undertone. For many, the post reinforced harmful stereotypes and sent a message that Chelley, a Black woman, may be deserving of violence just because of how she’s coming across on a TV show. 

The same day, Team Chelley — the people running Chelley’s social media while Chelley is at the villa — released a statement on Chelley’s IG Story in regard to BuzzFeed Tasty’s original post. “Team Chelley will not tolerate this level of disrespect, anti-Blackness, prejudice, and misogyny,” the post read in part. “Furthermore, we will not accept a narrative in which Chelley deserves violence. No person deserves that. Not Chelley or any of the islanders.”

Team Chelley also asked for a proper apology from BuzzFeed Tasty. “The parties responsible for this post must write a sincere apology and take steps of accountability to ensure this does not happen in the future. It is the least that can be done to uphold their statement of ‘… helping us do better!’”

On July 10, BuzzFeed Tasty made another statement on its Instagram Story, not referring to the specific post or even addressing Chelley by name, but saying the following: “We recently published a post that was offensive and did not meet Tasty’s and BuzzFeed’s high level of editorial standards. The post has been removed and we are taking steps to ensure this does not happen again.”

Next time, BuzzFeed might want to stick to pancakes and skip the punchlines.

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