Comedienne Sheryl Underwood made some pretty nasty comments about natural hair on Aug. 30 on her CBS show, The Talk, in response to hearing that Heidi Klum saves her children’s hair after it has been cut. Klum’s children with ex-husband Seal have “huge afros,” according to Klum, and it was this particular aspect of her children’s hair that Underwood commented on.

“Why would you save Afro hair,” Underwood asked, going on to state that no one ever walks into a salon and asks for that “curly, nappy, beady” hair.

When co-host Sarah Gilbert said that she also saves her children’s hair, Underwood concluded that it must be because Gilbert’s children’s hair is “some beautiful, long, silky stuff.”

The implication here is, obviously, that Afro hair is not beautiful, which we wholeheartedly refute. As usual, the Twitterverse generally agrees, calling out those who have misspoken and putting them on blast.

Nurse Jackie-O @LehsyaR – .@sherylunderwood would you love your NATURAL self if you had been ‘blessed’ with silky, straight, ‘good’ hair? Smh. You need to wake up.
 
@kokupuff @sherylunderwood @aishatyler @THEsaragilbert black babies!!! These are children she’s picking on. — 1001001 (@songbrdscientst”>September 1, 2013

For her words, Underwood underwent intense scrutiny for what many are considering to be a type of bullying toward black children.

On Aug. 30, Underwood made zero attempt to apologize, but as of Sept. 4, her attitude changed. On The Steve Harvey Morning Show, Underwood addressed her statements, beginning with an apology. All in all, it seems to be a very genuine, heartfelt apology, stating that her attempt at a joke was misdirected and ended up “hitting my people right in the face.”

She continues:

“To all of you, I am very deeply sorry for my failed attempt at humor about something that is very sensitive to us: our hair. I could use this time to explain the intent of what I said, but misunderstanding aside, the way that the joke came out offended by people and my community.”

Again, the natural hair community, which grows stronger and stronger by the day, has won a battle in the war that for so long suppressed the beauty of natural hair. See, ignorance isn’t the problem, it is not addressing it when you are shown the truth that is the real issue. By apologizing, in a real, human and honest way, Underwood has proven that she is indeed the woman we all believed her to be.

What do you think about the issue? Sound off in the comments below!

No comments yet.