The New South Wales Anti-Discrimination Board has called on the producers of The Real World: Sydney to take responsibility for airing negative comments made by cast member Trisha Cummings.

On a recent episode of The Real World: Sydney, Cummings, 19, was shown complaining about a Bondi McDonald's cashier who failed to give her a Crunchie McFlurry sample.  "I'm like, well I'd take the f....n' Crunchie one but I don't know what it tastes like because you wouldn't give me a sample,'' she relayed to her housemates.  “I'm like, you know what, keep the money, maybe take some English lessons - I'm leaving cause you don't know how to speak English.''

The cashier turned out to be an Asian-Australian, causing outrage among members of the community.  Many have also begun to label Trisha Cummings as a racist.

“The bottom line is it is not ok to be derisive of someone who is trying hard to make a success of their life by picking on them because someone did not have the patience to understand what was being said,” Stepan Kerkyasharian, president of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board, said.  ''The fact that she was in the position she was shows she was competent enough to be employed in that role.''

In Trisha Cummings' defense, her agent, Michael Martin, told News Limited that her comments were taken out of context when the particular episode was edited.

"Trisha is distraught by this misconception that she is racist," Mr Martin said.  "The edited video footage in question merely has her conveying in the second hand a person's lack of ability to speak English and not disparaging their race or ethnicity."

Cummings has yet to personally issue a statement regarding the matter.

The Real World: Sydney is the 19th installment of the popular MTV reality series.  Apart from Cummings, the cast also includes Shauvon Torres, Parisa Montazaran, Dunbar Flinn, KellyAnne Judd, Isaac Stout and Cohutta Lee.


-Lisa Claustro, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: The Daily Telegraph
(Image Courtesy of MTV)