“Black Ink Crew: Chicago” fans seem on the fence about Wednesday night’s explosive fight between co-stars Charmaine Walker and Lily Barrios.
The two foes have been feuding since season 4. After shop owner Ryan Henry decided to part ways with his former employees, including Barrios and Walker at the time, the 9MAG crew banded together and opened a new tattoo shop called “Loyal Ink.” However, the newly formed entity didn’t last too long after Walker and Barrios began butting heads about who should be the head honcho of the shop. The two archnemeses came to blows twice during the season before finally deciding to set aside their beef for the sake of working together in a professional environment.
Fast-forward to season 5, episode 8, and the two “Black Ink” co-stars are back at each other’s throats again. Both Walker and Barrios seemingly never stopped disliking one another, they just learned how to tolerate and coexist in a working environment together until a video of Barrios spewing the n-word went viral.
Lily Barrios and Charmaine Walker. (Photos: @blackinkcrewchicago/Instagram)
Barrios got into a heated verbal confrontation with Van Johnson‘s girlfriend Jennifer, aka Jen, last season, and during their argument Barrios hurled the word “nigga” several times. Social media slammed the tattoo artist of Mexican descent for using the derogatory term, but she continued to remain unapologetic.
Walker, on the other hand, was still infuriated at the web-circulating video of Barrios’ volatile words. Walker, Henry, Johnson and Don Brumfield confronted Barrios at the 9MAG shop about her N-word use, and things quickly went left.
Walker, Johnson and Brumfield schooled Barrios on the history behind “nigga” and explained that when it’s used by those who aren’t Black, the term can be deemed offensive. All three employees then unanimously voted to have Barrios removed from the shop, and Henry mandated she take some time off.
Barrios pushed back and said the only reason why Walker brought up her using the n-word is because of their prior history of disliking each other. She claimed Walker was out to get her fired from 9MAG. The two archenemies began exchanging jabs, and Barrios threw a drink on Walker. Walker then bum rushed and the two began to fight.
“Black Ink Crew: Chicago” viewers had mixed reactions about Walker and Barrios’ altercation and faulted both of them.
“Charmaine had it out for Lily from the jump she just went in on the racist issue 💯.”
“Lily needs to go. Too much drama and what she said was racist af! Fire her Ryan!”
“Both of them were wrong. Lily should of apologized and Charmaine made it a big deal and got her revenge🤷🏽.”
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