Irony sure flooded an episode of "The View" recently during a conversation about the 2016 Presidential candidate, Donald Trump. When the discussion was meant to be about anti-racism, Kelly Osbourne made a racist remark herself.
Osbourne said, "If you kick every Latino out of this country, then who is going to be cleaning your toilet, Donald Trump?”
See the irony now? In an attempt to make Trump see the ignorance and racism in his recent speech, Osbourne made an even bigger, ignorant, and racist remark herself. Soon after the comment was made, the hashtag, #QueridaKellyOsbourne (similarly translated as Dear, Kelly Osbourne) went viral.
Many Latinos used the hashtag to take down racist, dehumanizing, stereotypes made about their community. They expressed how they felt about Osbourne's remark by telling the world what they really do. It seems that the Latino community has become a frequent center of topic in our society today. Especially after statements like, “[Mexico is] sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems to us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists,” said Trump in June. Both Trump and Osbourne have made it clear that stereotypes are still casually being made without knowledge of what effect it is having on the Latino community.
As a member of the Latino community, I find it hysterical to know that people are so ignorant and uneducated about our race. Instead of reflecting upon the idea that yes, many Mexican immigrants probably have cleaned toilets, but many have also ascended to far greater things. Instead of reflecting upon the idea that anyone with a sense of drive will do anything to get to where they want to be, society chooses to limit the capability of what a Latino can and cannot do.
It goes far beyond the act of cleaning toilets. The main tragedy of all this is that people are misunderstanding racism. Just like Osbourne, many people in our society only see certain ethnic groups as servants unto theirs. It has become normal to generalize and cap the way a person can live their lives all determined by the color of their skin or where they came from.
Osbourne later passive aggressively "apologized,"
"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."
Osbourne admits to using a poor choice of words but doesn't consider it to be racist. She lacks humility and is overly defensive -- maybe it's because she is actually guilty of something. Instead of owning up to her racist remark, she picks and chooses what she thinks was racist and what she thinks was not.
I applaud members of the Latino community who are making the effort to make their achievements public, because, after all, no -- not every Latino cleans toilets. After Osbourne's remark, the Latino community made it clear to society that it is not where you start in life, it's where you finish.
Acknowledging your success every once in a while is something we all should do, especially when there are people who are telling you that you were never worth for more.
