Hall of Shame Moment: Big Brother 9’s Adam Slurs the Kids He’s Supposed to Be Supporting

In only two episodes of Big Brother 9, Sheila and Adam have proven that they were indeed perfectly matched by the producers – both of them are obnoxious and they really deserve each other. However, Adam went too far in the second episode, airing February 13, when he was describing his job and what he’d like to do in the future.

Adam was talking with Matt, Natalie, and partner Sheila. He talked about his job working with special needs children. According to Adam’s bio on the official CBS website, “He currently works as a PR manager where he arranges events, does publicity and is the Sponsorship and Creative Director for a foundation.”

That was all well and good. But then he continued that he wanted money (presumably from winning this show) so he could open a hair salon for those kids “so the retards can get it together and get their hair done.”

Yes, you read that right. He called special needs kids “retards.” This instantly set off alarm bells in pretty much every Reality TV Hall of Shame voter’s minds. That word is patently offensive. And that’s just not our opinion. Checking Dictionary.com, we find that the way in which Adam was using the word is considered “Slang: Disparaging.” Similarly, the American Heritage Dictionary says the word is “Used as a disparaging term.” I didn’t find any source that indicated the word was anything but negative.

Yet when Adam was called by partner Sheila on his use of the term, did he apologize for a momentary slip of the tongue? No. Instead, he defended the word, saying he works with them all the time and he didn’t see how calling them “retards” was bad. And he actually had the nerve to call Sheila “clueless” on the topic!

Actually, it’s Adam who is clueless. As Ken Kellam III, one of the Hall of Shame voters who works with autistic adults as his day job, noted, “It begs the question of why Adam is even in the field to begin with. Anyone who works with the disabled needs to have respect for that population, and Adam's comments show anything but respect.” Indeed, the comments were disrespectful and incredibly offensive.

This sort of behavior must be recognized by the Reality TV Hall of Shame. But I have a sneaking suspicion this won’t be his biggest problem. It would not surprise me one bit to find out that when Adam gets out of the Big Brother house, he no longer has a job. In fact, I would be surprised if he is not fired! After all, who would want him working for them doing that job when he refers to people – especially children – that way? Kellam also noted, “if I EVER used that word to describe [the people I work with], I would probably be looking for another job, and probably wouldn't find one in that field ever again.”

Adam was probably trying to be funny and cool. Instead, he showed himself to be an obnoxious ass. To make matters worse, he tried to defend himself for using an indefensible slur. Adam fully deserves this Reality TV Hall of Shame Moment.

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David Bloomberg is the Editor of the Reality TV Hall of Shame, and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

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