The midseason premiere of “Black Ink Crew: Chicago” aired on Monday night, and co-star Lily Barrios made her triumphant return to the show after getting fired in 2019.
Former 9MAG manager Van Johnson terminated Barrios from the shop after she got into a physical altercation with a fellow cast member. Not to mention that a few weeks before Barrios was given her pink slip she was scolded by the cast and viewers for her constant use of the N-word.
After being off the VH1 series for one season, the Mexican-American tattoo artist unexpectedly showed up to Johnson’s party he was throwing for his daughter’s 18th birthday. His daughter Briana apparently invited Barrios, unbeknownst to the cast.
The former 9MAG employee was stopped on sight by the show’s producers as soon as she entered into the building.
“We can’t let you in,” Big Fish producer Remi Abioye told Barrios. When she asked why, he responded, “So the last time all of that s–t came up. … The N-word. It’s a problem.”
After causing controversy online with her N-word comments last year, producers decided Barrios was no longer welcome to participate on the show.
The angry starlet stormed out of the building and accused Big Fish staffers of pulling the “Black card” and “twisting” the narrative.
Viewers had mixed reactions to Barrios getting thrown out of Briana’s birthday event and off the show.
“Lily is NOT there for the show she IS there for Bri’s Party if it was such a big deal just blurr out lily’s face 🤷🏾♀️,” said one viewer.
Another followed up with, “Come tf on every race be coo wit niggas even close people that aren’t black say the shit lily been around niggas so don’t betray her like she don’t f–k with our culture‼️‼️”
Someone else commented, “It’s quite confusing to me that Brianna would invite Lily when Van can’t stand her. I know she wanted to invite everyone from 9Mag, but she probably had the least interaction with Lily. But production put in the edit for show though. We don’t need Liability Lily on the show.”
A fan said, “Thats right dont say the n word periodtt Thats disrespectful. This b–ch ain’t black!”
Last year, “Black Ink” veteran Charmaine Walker called out Barrios for constantly saying “nigga.”
“[She] just needs to understand where the N-word came from and understand that it’s a word that Black people took from its oppressor to gain the power back,” Walker said in a February 2019 interview with VH1. “Lily’s just walking around and throwing the N-word everywhere and anywhere she can and I don’t like the context she uses it. … She only says it when she’s mad, when she’s drunk and when she’s talking to Black people. I don’t accept it.”
Barrios defended her right to use the slur by claiming she “grew up saying it.”
“I understand why people feel like I can’t say the N-word, and regardless if it sounds like an excuse for them, I grew up saying it and it wasn’t nothing where it was out the blue,” Barrios explained. “It’s something in my vocabulary how I grew up talking, it’s what it is. … The word saying ‘er’ [n—er] is different than saying ‘a’ [nigga] if that’s how you grew up talking. I understand the history of it. … But the way it’s is used now it wasn’t used in that sense.”
