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Celebrity Kelly Osbourne sparked a social media backlash on Tuesday for resorting to what many saw as a racist Latino stereotype in her own attempt to get back at Donald Trump’s controversial anti-Mexican rhetoric.
"If you kick every Latino out of this country, then who is going to be cleaning your toilet, Donald Trump?" Kelly Osbourne said on the U.S. talkshow "The View" Tuesday morning.
Co-host Rosie Perez responded telling her "Latinos are not the only people to do that," to which Osbourne replied "Come on, you know I would never mean it like that."
In response, the hashtag “Querida (dear) Kelly Osbourne,” created by writer Aura Bogado, quickly went viral to call out what many saw as both stereotyping Latinos and degrading the work Latino immigrants, particularly women and undocumented Latinos, are often employed in.
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Maybe we can let @KellyOsbourne know why she needs to apologize. Starting with an explanation of what latinos do. #QueridaKellyOsbourne
— Aura Bogado (@aurabogado)
August 4, 2015
#QueridaKellyOsbourne, migrant people are more than their labor.
— Concepción Lara (@lowsell)
August 4, 2015
“We're used to seeing this from racists like Donald Trump, but she was "trying to help" and still saw us from a stereotypical lens that places our value as cleaners in the U.S., not as judges or counselors,” Belen Villarreal, a Miami-raised Ecuadorean researcher at Portland State University, told teleSUR.
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Kelly Osbourne has since responded to the backlash through her personal Facebook account saying, “I will take responsibility for my poor choice of words but I will not apologize for being a racist as I am NOT."
While both Trump and Osbourne have resorted to Latino stereotypes in their remarks, Villarreal says that what distinguishes people like Trump is that they are “explicit with their racism.”
When people like Osbourne say, “I didn’t mean it like that” when called out on racism, the Ecuadorean researcher explains, it sheds light on how subtle racism is experienced daily “from our 'allies and supporters’ and everyday liberal white folks.”
There's a toxic combination of classism, racism, and xenophobia at play with the limiting stereotype of "toilet cleaning" Mexican immigrants
— Derrick Clifton (@DerrickClifton)
August 4, 2015
#QueridaKellyOsbourne why didn't you instead mention that Latinxs make up 75% of new business owners? or 1 in 5 college students?
— Latin@ Nerds (@comosedicenerd)
August 4, 2015
The hashtag was also used to debunk the stereotype of Latino cleaners, with some taking pride in their status as professionals, university students, and business owners.
“I was glad we called out how racism works even with people that are trying to help,” Villarreal said about the trending hashtag, but lamented that some people “took the chance to distance themselves from domestic work, when it's a common reality for many of our families.”
There's nothing wrong (with that), instead we should fight for more value,” she added.
#QueridaKellyOsbourne my mom scrubbed toilets and raised other people's kids so that her 3 daughters could go to college
— Rosas (@eshyera)
August 4, 2015
#QueridaKellyOsbourne my tias have been domestic workers to survive in this country financially and provide for their children.
— Elizabeth (@SchoolGirlQ)
August 4, 2015
According to a 2012 report from the National Domestic Workers Alliance, negative views and policies concerning domestic work in the United States have their roots in slavery and “the historic devaluation of black and brown labor.”
The report found that undocumented domestic workers are paid roughly 20 percent less than their U.S.-citizen counterparts and are often subjected to hazardous working conditions. Similarly, researchers said that 85 percent of undocumented immigrants who encountered problems with their working conditions did not complain because they feared their immigration status would be used against them.
