The conflict/conversation—conflictversation?—over Sharon Osbourne’s exit from daytime talk show The Talk has hit yet another milestone in recrimination today, as Osbourne has launched into a very Sharon Osbourne-focused argument aimed at former co-host Sheryl Underwood, over whether or not she apologized for the original on-set altercation that led to her departure from the series. (Which was, in turn, sparked by Osbourne’s public defense of Piers Morgan over his own host-ending comments about Meghan Markle, because everything is always Piers Morgan’s fault.)
Underwood talked, for the first time, about the incident that led to Osbourne’s departure earlier this week, on her podcast Sharon Walks Away. Given that it was a three-episode discussion, Underwood said a lot of things about the incident, in which she and Osbourne argued on-air over Underwood’s suggestions that Piers Morgan might just be a racist—including stating that she supports her friend “in good and bad,” and that “There was a part of me that felt like she had to do the best for herself and for her family.” But Underwood also reportedly said that Osbourne had yet to apologize to her over the incident, and whoops, here we go again, because Osbourne (also criticized in recent weeks for a past incident in which she spoke disparagingly of former co-hosts Holly Robinson Peete and Leah Remini) immediately barged back into the conversation to deny this latest alleged “attack.”
You know you’re in good shape, credibility-wise, when U.K. tabloid The Daily Mail is your go-to market for disseminating the truth. But that does appear to have been Osbourne’s choice yesterday, releasing to the paper screenshots of text messages she sent to Underwood in the days after the March 10 broadcast. And we can’t tell if Osbourne realizes this, but the exchanges in question actually make her come off, to our eyes, quite a bit worse, making it clear that she both accused her long-time colleague of “fake crying” on the show, told her to “f*** off,” and then attempted to deploy a sort of extended “us versus them” mentality on her in the guise of seeking forgiveness. While they do, technically, fall within the bounds of an apology, Osbourne’s texts also put a lot of emphasis on “having your back,” etc., which feels notable in that they were sent (if we have our timelines right) in the midst of the CBS investigation that led to her departure from the show.
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how does questioning Meghan Markle’s credibility automatically make someone a racist? you’re not seriously suggesting that simply arguing the point with a “woman of colour” is a form of bigotry, are you?
Every aspect of this incident is analogous to race relations in America (the only place I’ve lived) which is what is so infuriating to Blacks and shoulder-shruggingly ‘meh, was it THAT big a deal?’ to others.Sharon, unprompted and unnecessarily, defended a racist being racist simply ‘because he’s her friend’ as opposed to him being wrongly accused. That’s the rationale of the women who sewed hoods for the Klan and made picnics for a lynching. Her previous statement about Meghan ‘not being Black’ because she as lighter skin belies her thinking.When challenged, Sharon went full Karen, implied there was violence where none existed, started crying as though wounded but was unscathed (and not scared) enough to still curse out the Black woman without getting the verbal or physical beat down she truly deserved.Only fafed questions about her ridiculous and inappropriate reaction because many people called her out. Had it occurred off-camera, no one would have believed Sheryl and those in authority would have promoted Sharon while quietly firing Sheryl (then dredging up every incident of her not refilling the coffee as rationale).Sharon went on the offensive with lying interviews about being blindsided when she knew about the questions and could have simply made an anodyne statement or none at all. But she was sympathetically given several platforms that Sheryl (nor others on the show) who were actually harmed weren’t.Everyone on the show had to go on hiatus, instead of just the party clearly in the wrong, thereby deplatforming, minimizing and marginalizing Sheryl – the wronged party. We can only hope they all continued to be paid because they wouldn’t in real world corporate America.When the investigation was over and Sharon’s bigotry was well-established, the white woman prevailed with a multi-million dollar contract payout and golden parachute, no public acknowledgment that the entire incident was racism defined, and the aggrieved Black woman is expected to soldier on, lucky to have kept her job – FOR NOW, and no one is offering her counseling or money for her troubles.And as the icing on the cake of just how insidiously white women perpetuate the concept that only they can be victims and if any offense is verified, they must be forgiven immediately and absolutely, if they only produce the bare minimum of apologetic behavior. That Sharon claims to show ‘reaching out’ text messages isn’t not even really questioned. Who can say the texts are genuine and to Sheryl’s correct phone number? Who believes geriatric Sharon Osbourne TEXTS important conversations with people she ‘values’ (like say, the lawyer who negotiated her buyout) rather than arranging a face-to-face merting? That Sharon thinks she can provide receipts that prove that she half-apologized to one Black woman to absolve herself of hysterically defending a racist is the most illustrative Karen tactic of all Karendom. Well, except for waiting until her deathbed to admit she lied and got a Black boy tortured, disfigured and lynched like Carolyn Bryant.
Sharon/Karen just doubles down on her idiotic #notaracist GARBAGE when what she needs to do is SHUT UP AND LISTEN FOR A DAMN CHANGE. SHE is not the victim. PIERS is NOT THE VICTIM. But they sure can play like they are when they should be offering profound apologies for being straight up ASSHOLES who DON’T LISTEN.Fuck them. People DIE because of this racist culture. And they get their delicate feels hurt. Crymeariver.
Well Sharon’s a Brit so that racism wasn’t ingrained because she grew up here. Since the moment Meghan and Harry said their “I Dos”, Britain’s been amply showing their racist underbelly that they’d been pretending to the world no longer existed. Like pretty much the rest of Europe. I’m not at all in denial about the state of racism in America, but we didn’t invent it, and more and more it’s becoming obvious that exactly nowhere is post racism.