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Sharon Osbourne is still on her “I’m the real victim here” tour and it is going over like a lead balloon. It would seem that Sharon is incapable of self reflection. Now that The Talk is on hiatus pending an investigation, Sharon has decided to take this time to continue to gaslight Black women by saying she was set up. Of course the resident Black person is key in making every racist or racist adjacent sympathetic. In walks Kevin Frazier of Entertainment Tonight. Kevin interviewed Sharon, during which she predictably blamed CBS, cited “cancel culture” and claimed she was thrown under the bus. Sharon claimed that CBS is using Sheryl to get rid of her. She said she wants to have a summit around racism with her co-hosts Sheryl and Elaine Welteroth. Sharon also claimed to have apologized to Sheryl privately, and said Sheryl hasn’t responded to her alleged apology. I’ll save my ire for later. In the meantime here are a few excerpts from the interview:

After the show started, Osbourne recalls, “Sheryl turns around and asks me this question and….she was reading it off a card. It wasn’t on my cards. And then Elaine [Welteroth]‘s reading her questions and I’m like, ‘I’ve been set up.’ They’re setting me up. My anger was like, I cannot believe this, I’m your sacrificial lamb.”

The Talk has been on hiatus this week and will continue to be until next Tuesday. Osbourne tells ET she’s unsure what will happen to the show and whether or not she’ll return.

“I wish we could go on and have a adult conversation calmly and work it out but I don’t know whether we can,” she says. “I don’t know whether it’s gone past that. I would love to but I don’t know whether I even want to go back. … I don’t know whether I’m wanted there.”

Osbourne shared that she is willing to have an on-air conversation to further the conversation about race and make the whole controversy a teachable moment. She said that one of her newest co-hosts, 34-year-old Welteroth, especially wants to make this happen.

“I very much want to listen to the youth,” Osbourne notes. “Do I have my finger on the pulse of what’s going on, with the Black situation in this country? No…. The ins and the outs of the way the younger generation feel right now, I don’t have my finger on the pulse. Elaine does and Elaine very much wants to make this better and to have a conversation come out of this that will help other people and probably people of my age too that would help them.”

“I own up to what I did,” she adds. “I can’t not own up. I said what I said. I got too personal with Sheryl. I should’ve never said stop her tears. She was hurting as I was hurting.”

Osbourne acknowledged that when it comes to her tense exchange with Underwood, she handled the situation badly. “I love Sheryl, I’ve apologized to Sheryl, she’s not gotten back and I can understand. Sheryl needs her time.”

“I am not a racist and if you can’t have a go at your friend who happens to be Black, does that make me racist because I said certain things to my friend, but I said them on camera?” she asks. “I will keep on apologizing to Sheryl, even if I decide not to go back, I will still keep apologizing to Sheryl. I have nothing but respect and so much affection for Sheryl. I don’t want to hurt her.”

On the goal of allegedly blindsiding her with questions
“I think that CBS was so horrified with Piers. Remember that Harry and Meghan [it’s] a CBS interview. I had sided with Piers. It’s the cancel culture isn’t it. Throw her under the bus. Our two showrunners were crying. They said we were told to ask these questions from the executives. They wouldn’t give me names.”

[From ET Online, additional quotes added]

First of all, I am tired of white people expecting BIPOC to do the free labor to educate them about a system that was created by their ancestors in which they continue to benefit from. I don’t mind having a conversation about racism, however it is not my job to educate you when Google is free. Secondly, I am also tired of people like Sharon who have been caught out doing or saying racist sh*t using Black people as props or shields in their image rehabilitation campaigns (we see you Windsors and Chris Harrison). The most infuriating thing about this entire situation is how CBS would rather get rid of an entire show than cancel Sharon. Again this is racism on full display. Sharon was not set-up, she is not a victim. Being blindsided or caught off guard only emphasizes Sharon’s internal thoughts. Sharon is mad that she was unable to use carefully constructed responses to hide how she really felt. In fact, being supposedly caught off guard, Sharon’s racism was exposed for the world to see. Not only in her words or deeds but in her actions towards Sheryl. Telling a Black woman not to cry was not it. Talking disrespectfully to your Black colleague while deploying white tears and playing the victim is indeed racist. Calling your ex co-hosts racially insensitive and homophobic names is indeed racist. Getting your ex cohosts fired because they were, insert racially charged word, is indeed racist. Not being willing to acknowledge how racist and violent your behavior has been and being unwilling to apologize without excuses to your Black coworkers is racist.

I hope CBS fires Sharon and gets a new host that is less problematic, more respectful, and more aware of social issues. Only then can they have authentic conversations. But I have the feeling that is not what these networks want. They want the controversy until it is no longer lucrative for them. In this case, I feel that it is the audience’s responsibility to boycott these networks and shows until there is real change in all levels of society, specifically media. Sharon may be right, she is a sacrificial lamb in this new movement of societal equity. However, by refusing to evolve and grow, Sharon was the one to put her head on the chopping block.

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