Ashley Hollis, the reigning Big Brother champion who took home the title during the season 27 finale on Sept. 28, is not tolerating any disrespect out of the house. She swiftly responded to comments about her racial identity after fellow house guest Mickey Lee claimed that she was the only "traditional Black woman" on the show. "When a castmate from your season does an interview saying you're not Black," Ashley, 25, wrote on her Oct. 27 TikTok video, which showcases her dancing with her parents. She then pointed out their familial traits and race, saying, "Looks like two black parents to me."
Although Ashley didn't publicly name her former castmate, fans in the comments section quickly picked up on Mickey's, 35, words about her experience as a Black woman competing in the Big Brother house. Shortly after she was eliminated from the CBS series on Sept. 5, she clarified her stance. "I am 100 percent African American," Mickey told Entertainment Tonight at the time. "I come from areas where I do experience a lot of racism. I've never had a leg up in certain opportunities. I think I am the only one that experienced that. I do believe that Ashley is African American as well, but we do come from different backgrounds."
Mickey further doubled down on her stance the following month, explaining that she believed she was "the only Black woman in the house that was being treated through a stereotypical lens." "I felt like I was being asked a lot of questions about my hair being real or people insisting that my hair was not real because it was so long," she shared in her Oct. 10 TikTok. "I was asked if I knew who my father was because I said I was raised in a single-parent household. I was asked about food stamps, rap songs, do I know how to twerk on a handstand, and so on and so forth."
While she wanted to share insight into her experience on the show, Mickey noted that she didn't intend to "invalidate or devalue anyone's Blackness." "Not to say that I was treated badly," she continued, "but I did feel as though it was a lot of pressure on me to perform and live up to these stereotypes that people had me boxed in as."
