November 3, 2025. Love Island star Huda Mustafaapologizes to Olandria Carthen for racial slur reaction

Love Island star Huda Mustafa apologizes to Olandria Carthen for racial slur reaction . Listen for more on this story .

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Still broadcasting from the Civic Cipher studios. This is the
QR code where we share perspectives, seek understanding, and shape outcomes.
Big shout out to my man q Ward, who will
be back in the studio next week. But in the meantime,
in between time, I am still here, I'm still holding
it down, and I am still Rams's Jack. I want
you to stick around because later on the show, we're

(00:20):
going to be talking about Huda Mustafa apologizing for laughing
at the use of the N word in a live
stream video. For folks that watch Love Island, I'll admit
I don't, but for folks that do, the name might
be familiar, and obviously there's a lot of people reacting

(00:42):
to that. Prior to that, we're going to be talking
about some things you may not know about Black history.
And so without further ado, let's get into it. You know,
we are here together for better or worse. You know,

(01:06):
there's been a lot of people for a long time
who've espoused the idea of everybody going back to where
they came from, or everybody getting their own land to
live on, to minimize on skirmishes and conflicts and all
that sort of stuff, Right, and I'm not here to

(01:28):
debate the merits of those ideas. If anything, I kind
of like here. I like living with all of you all.
I hope you like living with me. You know. I
think that we can learn how to love each other,
and we can celebrate alongside each other. I know that

(01:49):
the different cultures that are in my orbit make my
life richer. They make it more fun, They give me
more experiences, more reasons to travel, other lenses through which
to view the world. I love you all. You make
me very happy. One of the things that I've learned

(02:14):
in doing our show, Civic Cipher is just how much
stuff that is black in this country that doesn't make
its way to non black people. And whenever I get
to share neat little things, I find that people gain context,

(02:37):
the gain perspective, the gain understanding, and as a result,
their capacity for empathy grows, their capacity to love grows.
And because I've seen that happen, I believe that we're
right where we need to be, all of us right.

(02:59):
I know that Native American people deserve a lot more
than what they have right now, so I want to
make sure that I say that. But the rest of
us all came here from somewhere, and I enjoy learning
about other people. I hope that you enjoy learning about

(03:20):
my people. So I'm going to share a few things
with you, try to break them down for you as
best I know how, and I hope you walk away
with something new, maybe that you didn't have before. I'll
share this from the National Museum of African American History
and in Culture. You can find this online at nm
AAHC dot SI dot edu. Uncle Tom, Let's talk about

(03:46):
Uncle Tom? All Right. Uncle Tom, written by Harriet Beecher
Stowe in eighteen fifty two, featured the title character as
a large, broad chested, powerfully made man whose truly African
features were characterized by an expression of grave and steady
good sense. United with much kindliness and benevolence, He forfeits

(04:06):
his own chance at escaping bondage and loses his life
to ensure the freedom of other slaves. The stereotype of
Uncle Tom is innately submissive, obedient, and in constant desire
of wide approval. The term became popular during the Great Migration,
when many Southern born blacks moved to northern cities like
New York, Chicago, and Detroit. With them, they brought codes

(04:28):
of conduct expected in hostile Jim Crow environments. The stereotypes
were first publicly recorded during an address by Marcus Garvey's
Universal Negro Improvement Association member Reverend George Alexander MacGuire in
nineteen nineteen. So a little bit of background there, but
I will kind of give you the shortened sweet version.

(04:52):
Uncle Tom is most often used as a term typically
from black people to black people. Typically it's from black
people to a black male, as the name would suggest.

(05:12):
The name suggests the gender Uncle Tom, and this black
male will go to the ends of the earth to
either criticize unnecessarily because if you are a black person,

(05:34):
you can be critical of black people. Indeed, all people
should be critical of their people, and I think they
being critical of yourself is how you learn and grow,
and maybe you can find blind spots, but needlessly critical
critical to no end. You can be considered an Uncle

(05:55):
Tom doing the bidding of your presser right, using the
talking points of your oppressor. Right. Uncle Tom's are often
hoping for outcomes that will see them seated right beside

(06:16):
their oppressor or a collective oppressor. The thinking sometimes is
that hey, look, we're all going to end up under
this boot. Maybe if I lick the boot, I will
be spared from the heel of the boot, you know
what I mean, Maybe I won't get it as bad

(06:37):
as the rest of you all. So it's kind of
like the house slave versus the field slave. Right. For
people that have seen Django, you'll notice that the character
played by Samuel L. Jackson, he would be considered an
Uncle Tom. There's a lot of modern politicians that fall

(06:58):
into this category. Clarence Thomas comes to mind, the Supreme
Court justice, you know, And I really don't need to
get into all the name calling. These are people that
you know well, people that again they do the song

(07:21):
and dance of the oppressor, and they will qualify their
perspective as being a free thinker, as not being a sheep,
you know, all that sort of stuff. But bear in
mind that they're wisdom. Let's call it wisdom. I'm using
air quotes for those that can't see flies in the

(07:43):
face of call it ninety two of black women at
least and eighty three percent of black men at least,
Because that doesn't mean that eight percent of black women
voted for Donald Trump, nor does it mean that seventeen
percent of black men voted for Donald Trump because there

(08:05):
were third parties as well, right, so that the vast
majority on both parts as close as you're going to
get to one hundred percent in terms of an election.
These people, they believe that their intelligence is greater than
that of all of those people. And bear in mind

(08:28):
all the PhDs, all the great thinkers, the philosopher, black philosophers,
you know, all these people that live black lives, bona
fide black lives, have Black children that they worry about,
have Black futures that they're concerned about, have Black pasts
that they're obligated. Two, they realized they inherited something special

(08:51):
and that they need to create something worth inheriting for
their posterity. These Uncle Tom's feel like, nope, they're all
just wrong. What I'm saying is right, or I'm not
going to be a sheep. So for the most part,

(09:13):
it's a serious accusation for someone to call you an
uncle Tom. You don't ever want to be called an
uncle Tom. It is like a it's a deep insult.
And now you know, all right, I want to talk
about watermelon. Okay. Another stereotype that exists in our world

(09:36):
is that we love watermelon. We love chicken, We love watermelon,
fried chicken, and grape soda and all that sort of stuff. Right,
I'm going to talk about watermelon in particular. I'm going
to try to roll these out from time to time.
But Watermelon's day is today, So let me let me
give you some background. Before it became a racist stereotype

(09:58):
in the Jim Crow era, watermelon once symbolized self sufficiency
among African Americans. Following emancipation, many Southern African Americans grew
and sold watermelons, and it became a symbol of their freedom.
Many Southern whites reacted to this self sufficiency by turning
the fruit into a symbol of poverty. Watermelon came to
symbolize a feast for the unclean, lazy, and childlike, to

(10:21):
shame black watermelon merchants, popular ads and ephemera, including postcards,
pictured African Americans stealing, fighting over, or sitting in streets
eating watermelon. Watermelons being eaten hand to mouth without utensils
made it impossible to consume without making a mess, therefore
branded a public nuisance. Again, I want to be sure

(10:43):
that I credit This is also from the National Museum
of African American history and culture. Okay, I've done a
deep dive on this one before, but let me start here.
Watermelon is a fruit. It grows from the ground like that,
and everybody loves watermelon. The only people that get made

(11:06):
fun of for eating watermelon are black people, just like
the only people that get made fun of for eating
rice or Asian people. And the only people that get
made fun of for eating beans are Mexican people. And
it's gross and it's not fair. It grows from the ground.
These are human, they're Homo sapien sapiens. This is the
food that they eat. It grows on the land where
they live. It would be foolish not to eat the

(11:28):
food that is provided to you by the land. Okay,
so let's start there. But watermelons, I want you to
know that many people in the Jim Crow South were
born slaves and once they were emancipated, never had any money.

(11:54):
That wasn't a thing. Poverty was a way of life.
You can imagine a future that's better than the one
that you're living in right now, even though times are tough,
you would not have been able to imagine a better
future in the Jim Crow South. One of the things
that I recall learning when I first did a deep

(12:18):
dive on the history of watermelon insofar as black people
are concerned, is that vanilla ice cream, once upon a
time was considered this treat. It was like a luxury
to have ice cream. And black people would not get
this treat. This was reserved for white folks. This was
before refrigeration and all that. Right, so ice cream was

(12:40):
a big deal. But as a reward for some slaves
or you know, workers, later on they could have watermelon,
and so this was like a treat. Right. So when
people have enough mobility, they can get some land, work
the land, grow something and sell it. They grow watermelons

(13:05):
and they sell it. The house I live in right now,
I bought it in twenty ten, and in the backyard,
on a wooden post there is one of those old
school racist sort of postcards. It's a metal postcard, and
it's of that minstrel cartoon character with the big lips

(13:27):
and the black skin, and he's holding a piece of
watermelon and smacking his lips, his exaggerated cartoonish lips as
he's eating the watermelon. And I left it up when
I moved in as a reminder, whoever lived in this
house before me? I don't forget where I'm at right,

(13:49):
But indeed it is unfair. It should be a symbol
of resilience and fortitude and pulling yourselves up by your bootstraps.
But because this country has never come to terms with
its racist roots and never had the conversations that needed
to have and done the restorative justice that it needed

(14:10):
to do, rather than this being a symbol of black resilience,
it now is used to suggest that you know, black
people eat strange foods. All right. Last thing I'm gonna
share with you is about a slave Bible. I'm gonna

(14:32):
switch gears. This is coming from history dot com. When
slavery was legal, its proponents often justified it with the Bible,
specifically a verse that tells servants to obey their masters.
There are also lots of verses that abolitionists could use
and did use to argue against slavery, but you wouldn't
find those in the heavily redacted Slave Bible. Most of

(14:56):
the Old Testament is missing, and only about half of
the New Testament remain. It's the reason so that the
enslaved Africans in the Caribbean islands of Jamaica, Barbados, and
Antigua couldn't read or be read anything that might incite
them to rebel. These slave Bibles also existed in the
United States of America. Some of you may know, but

(15:21):
not all slaves were illiterate. There were some slaves that
could read, and these were the slaves that ended up
being the ministers for the slaves on Sundays. Right. You
ever wonder why church is the most segregated place in

(15:43):
the country, it's because back when there were slaves, white
people would not have black people go to church with them,
and so different cultures developed in slave churches. And you know,
slaves got bought and sold, so they travel around and
bring little bits and pieces of their culture to other

(16:05):
slave churches and whatnot. But they had slave ministers that
would read these slave Bibles. The idea being that if
you came across a passage that suggested that you are
entitled to seek your customary freedom as a child of God,

(16:31):
that you are entitled to do so. This was a
form of control, not just the religion itself, but the
redacting of these key passages. And again, in these segregated churches,
you end up with one group that proclaims loudly their

(16:57):
love for the Lord, and a separate group that is
very somber, very very quiet, very hushed, very composed. On Sundays,
you have little sayings, little pieces of culture like I
rebuke you in the name of Jesus, that are more

(17:17):
prominent and more prevalent when it comes to black church
and black people. I know that phrase. I grew up
with that phrase. I don't often hear white people say it,
and I believe that that truth has its roots in
these slave churches. Right now, I want to make sure
you know not all the Bibles were slave bibles, right,

(17:41):
but a lot of them were, and the reason was
to keep the slaves from rebelling and running away. And
my hope is that now with those three additional pieces
of information, what is an Uncle Tom, what is the
racist history of watermelons? And what is a slave Bible?
You know, our little bit more enlightened. All right, let's

(18:02):
move on her final segment. Let's talk about Huda Mustafa
apologizing for laughing at the inward. This is our entertainment
segment and I'll share it from Tmzha. Mustafa is apologizing
to Orlandria Carthen after her inappropriately timed live stream laugh
while her former Love Island co stars released their own

(18:23):
statements on the incident. The reality star dropped the statement
on social media Wednesday afternoon, telling fans she felt she
needed to further clarify the initial statement she made after
seemingly laughing at Alandria being called the inward on a
live stream with her boyfriend Lewis. So, let me tell
you what happened here before I get into what she said.

(18:43):
So again, basically, in the live stream, Hoodah's on video
with her boyfriend and they're kind of listening in listening,
very close to the phone, and someone says, Landria is
a inward. I believe that's what said. It was bleep,

(19:05):
but I'm just kind of pulling from memory. So anyway,
this person says Alandria is an inWORD, right, and they
start laughing, her and her boyfriend. Okay, hood and her boyfriend,
they start laughing, and then afterwards they say, oh, you know, well,
you know, people shouldn't say that. That's a bad word.
It's a really bad word, that sort of thing. Okay,
all right, let me get back to the article. Mustapha

(19:27):
kicks off the statement by showering praise on Alandria, writing
that she totally respects her co star and calling it
totally disheartening that anyone would use the racist language that
she heard on the stream. Hooda then apologizes to Alandria,
explaining that she only laughed because she was caught off
guard and didn't hear the statement initially ultimately chuckling out
of awkwardness rather than humor. Mustapha's doing some damage control,

(19:51):
or at least trying to as well, because she says
she's making a donation to the NAACP. She also shared
links to other charities for followers to donate to racial
US disinequity organizations. Several of Hooda's former castmates have really
statements in the aftermath of the incident, with Hannah Field's
Shelley Bisson bysynthy, I think that's how I said this,

(20:12):
and Iris Kendall firing off at the caught on camera moment.
Shelley specifically called the moment disappointing to say the least,
adding racism isn't a prank, It's not funny, and it's
not even awkward. It's disgusting, Shelley says, and Hooda and
her boyfriend should have checked it in the moment. Luis
Hooda's boyfriend or Lewis, I'm not sure. Forgive me. This

(20:35):
is more cue stuff. He's a little bit more tapped
into this, but any event, Hood's boyfriend also released a
second statement on Wednesday, apologizing to everyone affected by the
comments on the livestream, adding as a person of color,
he's keenly aware of the impact of such language. Only
time will tell if Hooda's apology will smooth over tensions,
but it doesn't look good for her right now. Okay,

(20:56):
so yeah, I don't know these people. I don't want
to pretend I do. I'm more of a music guy,
and I'm the last thing I am is a reality
TV show guy. I know a lot of guys agree
with me on that. It's just not my kind of party.
I just don't get it. Watching other people live their

(21:19):
lives feels like a missed opportunity for me to live mine,
you know. Again, not mad at other people that find
the entertainment in it, It's just for me. That's the
only way that my mind can process that. But when
moments like this happen, I feel the need to explore

(21:41):
and I'll admit that I can be maybe a little
bit more forgiving. I have a little bit more grace
than a lot of people would like for me to have.
You know, I show up and I got the big afro,
and I, you know, look like I mean business. Maybe,

(22:05):
and I do. But I also recognize that people are flawed.
I recognize that I'm flawed. I don't know everything, be
honest with you, I'm just guessing. I think I'm pretty
good at guessing, but I don't know for certain, and
no one else does either. My life has been a

(22:27):
dream come true, and I'm still trying to figure out
how I can teach it to other people so that
they can replicate it, you know what I mean. So
with that said, I recognize that people are, for the
most part, doing the best that they can. Sometimes people
make honest mistakes. Sometimes people have blind spots, Sometimes people

(22:49):
have oversight. Sometimes people don't have enough time to think
their way through a moment and process everything that needs
to be process in order to make the decision that
is consistent with their morality. I don't believe in guns.

(23:10):
It's a great example. I don't believe in guns. I
just I mean, I believe, I know that they exist.
I was just having this conversation funnily enough, but I
know they exist, but I just don't. I don't. It's
a device that's only purpose is to end a life.
That's the that's the whole thing. Somebody created, drew it
on paper, created it, brought it into the world so
that it could end the life. I don't want nothing

(23:33):
to do with that. That's just not why I was made.
That's just not in my heart. To each his own,
that's not for me. If I had access to a
gun and I knew for certain that somebody was going
to attack me or somebody that I loved, if I

(23:56):
didn't have enough time to consider an alternative, I might
grab a gun and shoot at it at a person
I don't know. I mean, I don't think I would,
But I'm also not just about to you just let
something happen. You know. Maybe that's not the best analogy,
but I say this to suggest that people mean well

(24:17):
until they're in a moment that they didn't plan for. Okay,
so again, I know I recognize I might be giving
a lot more grace than is deserved here, but in
hood's circumstances, I mean, after seeing the video. I think
that she's telling your she was caught off guard. She
didn't expect it to happen. And I've seen that happen

(24:39):
on a lot of people. When something crazy happens, gross, disgusting, whatever,
you know, their initial reaction is to laugh, like is
this serious? Like are you did I hear that? Right?
You know? And because that's such a sensitive word, there
are people on this side, I'll call it the black side.

(25:02):
I'm black that might look at that and say, oh
my gosh, you think this is funny, You think that's
something to laugh at. Does that not affect you? And
that's why you think that you can laugh at it,
because it doesn't affect you. It's not your ancestors aren't
rolling in their graves. That's not the last word your
ancestors heard before they were hung in a tree or
set on fire. So it doesn't mean anything to you.

(25:24):
So you could laugh at it. How insulting. But again,
you know, I've said stated this on yesterday's episode in
a couple of times on the show. People are on
their journey, They just are. I think that most people
mean well, and a lot of people are figuring out

(25:49):
what good looks like as they grow as they develop
as a human being. I'm sure there's a lot of
people who are folks that you would not agree with
their politics, but they feel like what they are doing,
what they think, how they vote is entirely justified, and

(26:09):
it is moral, and it is true, and it is
consistent with their religious principles, and on and on and on.
I'm sure that they have a version, an explanation in
their brain that justifies it all, and that doesn't give

(26:32):
them an excuse. But I think that what it should
do is ensure that the rest of us hold a
little bit of grace for people that make mistakes, because
everyone does, for people that are tricked, for people that

(26:54):
are preyed upon, for people that lose their way. I'm
not saying let people take advantage of you, because that
doesn't help anyone. I'm not saying let people abuse you,
because that doesn't help anyone. But I am saying that
where there can be a road back to grace and fellowship,

(27:17):
I think there should be. I think if a person says,
you know what, I've been able to see what happened
that was not what I intended to put out there,
I'm very sorry. I'm going to do what I can
to make it right and what that looks like. I'm
willing to learn from you. How can I make my
apology louder than the offense? People with that type of energy,

(27:41):
I think that they deserve a road back, because worst case,
if we don't give them a roadback, they end up
fortifying the opposition. They end up joining the ranks of
the people who oppose us. Because human beings have a
strong need for community, and if they cannot rejoined this
community over here of the people that are accepting and loving,

(28:05):
they will find a community elsewhere. And I can assure
you there's a group of folks with some open arms
that are willing to take anybody who has been canceled
quote unquote or ostracized from the woke community, or however
they choose to describe it. So I hope this doesn't stick.

(28:26):
I feel like she didn't mean it and she's truly sorry.
With that in mind, that's going to do it for
us here on the QR Code. Todays show, as always,
was produced by the great Chris Thompson. If you have
any thought you'd like to share, please use the red
microphone talk back feature on the iHeartRadio app, and while
you're there, be sure to hit subscribe and download all
of our episodes. Also, be sure to check us out
on all social media at Civic Cipher, I have been
your host. I go by the name of Ramsey's Jah

(28:46):
on all social media. You can find q at Imqward
on all platforms as well. And join us next time
as we share our news with our voice from our
perspective right here on the QR Code. Peace,