Columbus Short Apologizes For Disparaging Black Women During ‘Unqualified AF’ Podcast Appearance

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I n today’s episode of Relationship Podcasts Continue To Be The Internet’s Worst Invention , actor Columbus Short has apologized for disparaging remarks he made about Black women during an appearance on The Unqualified AF podcast , which, apparently, lives up to its name when it comes to healthy and informed advice regarding relationships and the dynamics between men and women.

First, let’s start with the question Short was responding to and what he said.

“Now this a question, I’m gonna ask a question, it’s an interesting question, it’s a controversial question, that I want you to answer honestly,” host Azar Farideh said before asking an utterly uninteresting question that has been discussed in the Black community since before Spike Lee released Jungle Fever . “In the media, there is this constant conversation about Black men dating outside of their race, there’s a conversation about how Black women are difficult, aggressive, mean, angry, bitter; some of it I take accountability for as a Black woman and having Black friends. So I wanna talk about it because I wanna know — what is the difference between being with Black women and being with another woman?”

Here’s a simple truth: Anytime you ask a Black man who dates outside of his race if or why he prefers non-Black women, you run the risk of subjecting yourself to the verbal cacophony of misogynoir-laced hotep nonsense, which is bound to include a miseducated understanding of history.

The Cadillac Records actor did not disappoint.

Short began by explaining that the division of the Black family happened “during J. Edgar Hoover’s tenure at the FBI when crack and guns were distributed into the Black community to dismantle the Black Panther movement”, and that Black men were removed from the home during slavery as an “immediate way to control, demasuclate the man and take control of the Black family.” (No, “demasulate” isn’t a word. Yes, I’m sure Short still believes the Willie Lynch letter is real.)

“Now we come to the 2000s and these Black women were raised by single mothers, [and have] absentee fathers, fathers are either incarcerated, dead or just gone,” Short continued. “Their mama said ‘You don’t need no n****, you don’t need no man, you can do it by yourself,’ that energy comes into the home. There is no respect of the Black man by Black women. I’m not talking about all of y’all, there’s a majority of you guys that was raised without a father so you have no respect for that. So that’s the difference.”

Then Short took a page out of Tyrese’s book and started putting other races on a pedestal while continuing to disparage his own people, particularly, Black mothers.

“That Mexican side, that Asian—Korean, Japanese—that other side… Culturally, those women were taught to hold down but it’s more than subservient, it’s don’t get it twisted; I know how to cuss a man out thoroughly but as soon you done cussing him out, you still making dinner, you still washing clothes, you still cleaning the house; that’s just what you were trained to do,” Short said before rolling his neck to mock Black women. (South Korean women literally led a strike last year over the region’s “patriarchal culture” that reduced them to “baby-making machines,” but whatever.)

After Short got dragged up and down social media for his remarks about Black women, he issued your standard celebrity apology, in which they always claim their words were taken out of context despite there being no context that would make the remarks OK.

From Bossip :

“I realize that I seriously offended my black women,” said Short while saying that a clip from the podacst was taken out of context and calling it “clickbait.” “My answer was lengthy and that clip was sizzling, I guess. I should’ve been smarter and not falling into those traps. The real answer was, I was talking about the new generation, on social media and entitlement.”

He then went on to explain that absentee fathers forced Black moms to teach their children to be independent.

“It was deeper than that answer, I am truly sorry if that offended anybody. My opinion is not always neccessary.”

To be honest, the fact that Short has been the subject of arrests and multiple allegations of domestic violence is one of multiple reasons he should have avoided this subject and relationship podcasts in general.

In fact, maybe we all need to avoid those podcasts. Just a thought.