Sheryl Underwood Discusses ‘Trauma’ From Sharon Osbourne Controversy: I Didn’t Want To Be Perceived As An Angry Black Woman

Sheryl Underwood Discusses ‘Trauma’ From On-Air Conversation With Sharon Osbourne: I Didn’t Want To Be Perceived As An Angry Black Woman

Monday on “The Talk” host Sheryl Underwood discusses her experience during the emotionally charged, on-air conversation with Sharon Osbourne on March 10, along with expert on diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice Dr. Donald E. Grant.

“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.”

Fellow host Elaine Welteroth adds,

“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 adds,

“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.”

The show was off the air since Sharon Osbourne’s heated conversation with Sheryl Underwood on March 10th.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xUviHcV8NA

The moment not only lead to the show taking a break but also ended Sharon Osbourne’s time on The Talk after 11 seasons.

CBS announced Sharon Osbourne’s departure and said in a statement,

“Sharon Osbourne has decided to leave The Talk. The events of the March 10 broadcast were upsetting to everyone involved, including the audience watching at home.”

Following the discussion, CBS said it would perform an internal review of Osbourne’s remarks. It also shared the results of the investigation in the statement announcing her exit.

“As part of our review, we concluded that Sharon’s behavior toward her co-hosts during the March 10 episode did not align with our values for a respectful workplace.”

The network concluded by denying her claims that she was set up by production to have the discussion on air.

“We also did not find any evidence that CBS executives orchestrated the discussion or blindsided any of the hosts.”

Sharon Osbourne

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