Kelly Osbourne Apologises After Remarks About Latinos Being Cleaners

We’re usually huge fans of Kelly Osbourne. She’s outspoken, dresses as she pleases and takes career risks over matters of principle, leaving her high-profile presenting gig with Fashion Police after an alleged row following her co-presenters remarks in relation to a black actress? dreadlocks back in February.

However, Kelly’s latest career move isn’t so much inspiring as a bit of an unthoughtful exercise.

Yesterday on American talk show The View, Kelly made comments about Latinos that rightfully upset a lot of people. The young woman was deriding Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and his conservative stance on immigration. During her indignant rant she said, ?If you kick every Latino out of this country, then who is going to be cleaning your toilet, Donald Trump??

Her immediate reaction onscreen was one of muted what-did-I-say and The View co-host Rosie Perez jumped in immediately to call Kelly out. “No, I didn’t mean it like that! Come on!” she said to the on-air criticism.

However, it was later that Osbourne formally apologised for her stereotyping. She issued a statement within hours reading: ?I want to start by saying I always take responsibility for my actions. In this particular case I will take responsibility for my poor choice of words but I will not apologize for being a racist as I am not. I whole-hearted f***ed up today. I don’t want to bulls**t anyone with lame excuses? I should have known better as I was on The View and it was live. I’ve learned a very valuable lesson. It is my hope that this situation will open up a conversation about immigration and the Latin community as a whole.?

While we understand Kelly’s frustration with a man like Donald Trump, she really shouldn’t criticise someone for racism by being racist herself – unconsciously or not. Thankfully Kelly’s apology had a bit more meat to it than other celebrity apologies, and she reacted more quickly and appropriately than Taylor Swift did during the recent Nicki Minaj Tweeting Controversy. Even in the clips from the show she’s sincere in the aftermath. We just hope she’s learned her lesson and thinks before she speaks on such sensitive subjects again. And also that she thinks before she thinks to speak because you can’t go around painting one of the most important minorities in the US as an endless chain of domestic workers. The Latino community deserves better than a powerful millennial in the public eye making cheap political jokes at their expense.