Early this week, ‘The Talk’ host Sheryl Underwood opened up about her experience during her verbal exchange with Sharon Osbourne last month.
In a recent conversation with Dr. Donald E. Grant, she says:
“I didn’t want to escalate things with Sharon, because I thought I was having a conversation with a friend, but also, I knew I had to be an example for others to follow. I didn’t want to be perceived as that angry Black woman, and that really scared me. I didn’t want to be that and I wanted to remain calm and focused. It’s difficult to go back to that day because I just feel the trauma. I feel fearful, a little apprehensive.”
Elaine Welteroth shared a few heartfelt words with Sheryl.
“I just want to acknowledge you, Sheryl, on air for how you handled the situation. I think it’s important for people to really know the strength and willpower it takes to maintain that kind of composure in that situation. And I think for me, I was just really entering that conversation with the hope of finding a common ground and I didn’t feel like I was heard, which saddened me because part of the reason I joined this show with all of these diverse, beautiful, intelligent women was because I thought that we had an opportunity here and I think we do have an opportunity here to have conversations that help show people how to bridge these divides in our country and that we can do it with empathy.”
She went on to say:
“So I was hoping to steer the conversation away from a debate about who’s racist, who’s not, what’s racist, what’s not and talk really about what does it mean to be anti-racist, because that’s a more productive conversation.”
Check out the interview below: