Sheryl Leads Racial Healing Convo In “The Talk’s” Return Episode
Sheryl Leads Racial Healing Convo In “The Talk’s” Return Episode
“The Talk” is back — minus one host- Sharon Osbourne. The Emmy-award-winning daytime talk show returned today following several weeks hiatus; since Sheryl Underwood and Sharon Osbourne had a heated discussion around racism and commentary by Piers Morgan, which Osbourne defended. During the hiatus CBS revealed Osbourne would not be returning to the show.
Sheryl Leads Racial Healing
Monday’s “The Talk,” host Sheryl Underwood shared a message from backstage as the show returns since the week of March 10.
“It’s time for an episode of ‘The Talk’ that will be unlike any other we’ve had before”. Underwood adds, “As you may know, during our break, Sharon decided to leave ‘The Talk’. We need to process the events of that day and what happened since, so we can get to the healing. Over the next hour, we will honestly discuss what occurred and explore some of our feelings. And we’ll also show you how anyone can become more comfortable discussing important issues and having difficult conversations. By the end of the hour, we want everyone to feel empowered and ready to move forward.”
During the episode, Underwood went on discuss 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.”
It was pretty clear for everyone that was watching, that Sheryl was doing everything in her power to remain calm and not come across ass angry.
Fellow host Elaine Welteroth added:
“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.”