Eva Longoria Apologizes After Huge Backlash

Eva Longoria is in hot water after a comment she made on live television.

By Drew Dietsch | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

Eva Longoria is finding herself in hot water after a comment she made on live television. The actress was seen on MSNBC giving an interview regarding the recent victory of President-elect Joe Biden. In the interview, Longoria claimed that U.S. Latinas were the “real heroes” of the 2020 election. This comment led many listeners to believe that she was downplaying the critical role that Black women played in President-elect Biden’s win.

After the offended reception to these comments began to gain some serious traction, Eva Longoria took to her Twitter account and her Instagram account to clarify her feelings:

It was a humbling retraction for Eva Longoria, especially once more polling data came out and revealed the enormous impact Black women had in the vote for President-elect Joe Biden. Preliminary data shows that 90% of Black women voters cast their ballots for the Democratic nominee, while about 70% of Latina voters decided to support Biden.

Eva Longoria’s choice of words seemed to integrate itself into the political world as newly re-elected Representative Ilhan Omar tweeted out a cryptic comment that seemed pointed directly at Longoria’s comment:

A big reason why Eva Longoria has been making the rounds in the press is due to the fact that a large number of Latinx voters ended up supporting Donald Trump. Considering how much of Trump’s rhetoric and actions seem to be antithetical to Latinx interests, the media has been analyzing how the Democratic party was unable to reach Latinx voters. Longoria wanted to combat that narrative, but in doing so, she ended up minimizing the role of other groups in the election.

The controversial remarks by Eva Longoria have also been amplified by other recent moments of racially insensitive comments from Latina women. Camila Cabello was criticized for posts she made on social media back when she was 14 and 15 years old. Gina Rodriguez also found herself at the center of some controversy regarding her usage of offensive anti-Black language. It is causing a serious conversation to arise about racism and racial insensitivity towards Black communities from Latinx celebrity figures.

gina rodriguez
Gina Rodriguez

It is also worth noting that Eva Longoria’s comments declined to acknowledge Black Latinas when she was making her comments. All around, it looks like her intention to highlight the importance of Latina voters ended up blowing back in her face. It’s unfortunate since it is good to shine a spotlight on the vital role marginalized groups play in the American electoral process, but it is clearly important to keep in mind that you can’t prop one group up while you ostracize another.

We will have to wait and see if Eva Longoria will find herself absolved of her comments or not. Hopefully, she will take this opportunity to realize the importance of choosing your words very carefully, especially when it comes to being supportive of the marginalized groups that ended up being so important to the election of President-elect Joe Biden. It is going to be interesting to see if she makes a similar mistake in the future.