By
Variety
via
NBC News
The American singer, actress and model Kelly Osbourne, daughter of musician Ozzy Osbourne, earned strong criticism in 2015 for a comment on the television show
The View
about Latinos that was called racist.
Referring to the immigration promises of then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Osbourne said during a program with hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Rosie Perez: “If you kick out all the Latinos in this country, then who is going to clean your toilets, Donald Trump?”
Osbourne almost immediately apologized for his “poor choice of words,” but stressed, “I will not apologize for being racist, because I am NOT.”
Osbourne's video has now resurfaced on the social media site TikTok and has become an internet meme, with numerous users posting videos ridiculing racial stereotypes.
That has put the spotlight back on Osbourne, who in a new interview with
Rolling Stone
magazine described his phrase as “the most embarrassing moment” of his entire life, admitting that it came out “very wrong.”
Kelly Osbourne.Axelle Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic via Getty Images
“This country is built by immigrants, and if you prevent people from coming who do the jobs necessary for this country to exist and prosper and flourish, who is going to do all the jobs that you don't want to do?” Osbourne said.
“Latin American culture is the backbone of the US. I think Latin Americans are the hardest working people you will meet,” she added.
[Racism is not only towards Latinos, it also exists among Latinos. This is how you can heal]
“He hurt a lot of people.
That to me, by far, makes it the worst thing I've ever done,” she said of his comment.
“I realized that I'm not great at live TV and that words are very powerful.
Being labeled as something you are not is really difficult.
But it happened.
There is nothing I can do".
TikTok memes led her to revisit the 2015 clip: “I hate it.
I hate it so much because I look at it and think, 'You think you know everything and you know nothing.
Nobody wants to hear [your] opinion on this.'”
“No one wants to hear a white person's opinion on race.
Nobody,” she said.
“I learned it the hard way.
As I have said, it is time for us to accept the change that is occurring, embrace it and support it instead of being afraid and feeling like something is being taken away from you.
Everyone has the right to their opinion, but like I said, it's time to sit down and shut up.
If you don’t support it, shut up,” he added.
Osbourne said that the response against him at the time included “death threats” and that now he is “definitely not the person he was before that incident.”