FILE - In this Jan. 10, 2015 file photo, Kelly Osbourne arrives at The Art of Elysium Heaven Gala at Hangar 8 in Santa Monica, Calif. Osbourne apologized Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, for comments she made earlier in the day on "The View" about Latinos cleaning Donald Trump's toilets. (Photo by Omar Vega/Invision/AP, File)
Kelly Osbourne caused a social media storm Tuesday after her remark about Latino immigrants cleaning toilets on “The View,” with many people calling it racist.
While many took to Twitter to voice their outrage, some Latino groups looked at the broader message they say Osbourne was trying to get across, and gave her credit for bringing a hard truth to light.
Alex Nogales, president of the Hispanic Media Coalition, told Fox News Latino that Osbourne’s statement did not offend him. Nogales said that while her remarks did sound wrong, the underlying sentiment behind her words was the “honest thing to say.”
“She didn’t mean it in a wrong way. She was saying ‘Hey you are talking s*** about this community when they are doing the jobs that a lot of people don’t want to do,’” he said. “I don’t think she’s against us. She’s got a good heart.”
Nogales said Osbourne was trying to show that Latinos are not afraid of doing the hard work, and that many second- and third-generation Latinos are products of that hard work.
“We thank her for bringing attention to the matter and we thank Rosie (Perez) for being there to challenge her,” he added. “All of these are teaching opportunities.”
Lisa Navarrette, a spokesperson for the National Council of La Raza, the oldest Latino advocacy issues group in the country, said Tuesday that it was “unfortunate” that Osbourne used the most cliché stereotype about the Latino community in an attempt to get her point across.
“This is how someone in her position views our community most of the time,” she told E! News. “I just hope she uses this as a learning opportunity to really get to know the whole breadth of the community if she is going to go on ‘The View’ or discussing issues like this. I recommend highly that she get herself educated to know the community and talk to people like Rosie Perez at length about this sort of thing.”
She added: “Her heart was in the right place, she was trying to make a point about Donald Trump and his bigotry as being impractical and that Donald Trump depends on a lot of Latinos to do the work. She was trying to make a very strong statement and it fell flat. Her heart was in the right place.”
During the show's "Hot Topics" segment, Osbourne put her foot in her mouth while discussing presidential candidate Donald Trump and his racist remarks about Mexican immigrants.
“If you kick every Latino out of this country, then who is going to be cleaning your toilet, Donald Trump?” Osbourne said, surprising the other co-hosts and viewers.
Later in the day, the former reality star attempted to apologize and clarify her “poor choice of words.”
"I want to start by saying I ALWAYS take responsibility for my actions," she wrote on Facebook. "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 bullshit anyone with lame excuses."
She continued: "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. By the way I clean my own f*** toilets."
On Wednesday’s show, “The View” co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Raven-Symone defended Osbourne.
“The point she was actually trying to make was that Donald Trump’s stance on immigration will only end up hurting people that Donald Trump is counting on,” Goldberg said. “And one of the things that happens on live television is you try to get your point in and you try to hit it, and you sometimes stepped in dog doo. It does not make you a racist. … Sometimes your head works faster than your mouth, it happens.”
Symone, who called Osbourne her best friend, added: “I don’t think she’d be a racist if she was friends with me.”
Co-host Nicolle Wallace, who was not part of Tuesday’s show, questioned whether her co-hosts would be as forgiving or understanding if they didn’t have personal relationships with Osbourne.
"What struck me was that you guys know her heart, and it was so instant that you were able to forgive her, and it made me wonder if we gave that kind of benefit of the doubt to people that we are ideologically opposed to, what game-changer that would be," said Wallace. "If Ted Cruz said that or Mike Huckabee said that, I can picture all of you looking into the camera saying 'I'm going to do something to my toilet, you can clean it.' "
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