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Kristen Scott

Source: Robin L Marshall/Getty Images / Getty

Kristen Scott is speaking out, and no, she’s not talking about Cece Gutierrez and Byron Scott.

Instead, the Basketball Wives star appeared on Melyssa Ford’s entertaining podcast, I’m Here For the Food with co-hosts Blue Telusma and Chantelle Anderson to talk about the “colorism conundrum” that was a big topic at the end of Season 8 of the show. When she was asked whether or not she felt Ogom “OG” Chijindu experienced any colorist behavior from her co-stars, particularly from Evelyn Lozada and Shaunie O’Neal, which she and people on social media felt was present, Kristen said no.

“For me, I’m clearly the same damn color. I mean, I feel like I’m the same color as OG. I’m not getting that treatment so it’s hard for me to agree that it’s because of her skin color,” she said. “It makes it very difficult for me to agree that this is colorism when I’m the same color.”

Co-host Blue questioned her stance though, noting that “people can have a bias and still be nice to someone within that bias as a token. So your experience to me is completely irrelevant to whether they’re bias or not because it happens all the time.”

Blue also said she was surprised that the cast could all watch the show and not have learned anything from seeing themselves and the response that their behavior received. No one seemed to regret anything or offer a mea culpa to OG.

“I think where you guys lose me is, instead of saying we unintentionally hurt you guys, it’s almost like dismissal,” she said.

From there, Kristen started to soften her stance.

“Can everybody own their sh-t? Yes. I hear you. I 100 percent hear you,” she said. “It looks like mean girls, it looks like bullying — I hate using that for grown a– women but that’s the word that gets thrown around. I get it. Do I think that things happened unintentionally that we do? Yeah. When you look back at yourself I’m sure you’re like ‘F–k, that’s not what I meant to do,’ but [Evelyn and Shaunie are] two grown a– women that I can’t speak for. I can only speak for me and what I had with [OG]. I have done a lot of apologizing for a lot of my bad behavior on this show. You saw and you haven’t. I really tried to be somebody who owns my sh-t, I really do. When you watch OG and she says, ‘I don’t regret anything,’ there’s no accountability.”

“Me personally, I hate that OG feels like that,” she added. “I may not get along with her but it’s devastating that this beautiful Black woman feels less than at her job. That sucks. It absolutely sucks. So I think everyone needs to own their sh-t. She needs to take a step back and say, how did I even get here? And we as a cast meaning everyone but OG, that includes her friends that are on the show, how did we allow her to even feel this way?”

Kristen still, however, placed some blame on OG, claiming if she felt she was dealing with colorism, it would have helped if she tried to have a conversation with the ladies about it way before the reunion.

“I see how you guys feel being on the outside looking into an edited television show. I’m still going to speak my truth, and for me, colorism exists, but I do not feel it lives here, with that. Now if that’s how OG feels, I’m not going to argue with her feelings. You can’t never tell nobody how they feel,” she said. “Could it have been unintentional? Absolutely. Does it feel like colorism to a lot of the world right now? Yes. And then there are those where it doesn’t. I actually feel like, just on what I have witnessed and been a part of, I don’t feel like that’s what’s happening. I really don’t. But for someone’s feelings, everyone has to take a moment. Everybody has to take a moment and say, I felt like this. What did you want to get from the person who felt like that? And I don’t know what they have or have not done. I can’t speak for them. But for me and what I have witnessed, I don’t feel this is a colorism issue. And if it is for her, which it obviously is, would you ever want to work in this space again with any of us? Why did we not have it as a teaching moment before the reunion? Because if you felt like this, it wasn’t just because you didn’t sit on the stage. You obviously felt this behavior. Why couldn’t we talk about this before?”

“OG, if you felt like that, make it a teaching moment,” she added. “Maybe by the time we got to the reunion we could have all shared that stage.”

But as Blue, again, pointed out, there were moments where OG did ask aloud why people could exhibit equal or worse behavior to her own but not get the grief she constantly received from the rest of the ladies. The only response people had aside from rolling their eyes was that she was aggressive all of the time.

It was also pointed out by Chantel that Kristen and OG do not look the same and that Kristen looks a little bit closer to whiteness, which she said colorism is about — a person’s proximity to whiteness and lack thereof for someone else.

After about 45 minutes of going back and forth about the topic with the hosts, Kristen did admit to having some regrets about the way things played out.

“If I could talk to myself six to eight months ago, s–t, that’s hard, because I’ve had such negative experiences with [OG], but I still don’t think anyone deserves to feel that way. So if I felt that I could have a conversation like this, a safe conversation, where I felt like I was in a safe space — not unsafe like she’s going to punch me in the mouth, just that we can have this type of dialogue, why not? Of course I would have done it.”

“Now sitting down and speaking with you guys, I wish we could have changed it,” she added. “I wish we could have done something different. Maybe we still can.”

With that being said, Kristen said that she would do a better job if she’s brought back for Season 9 to handle things differently. We’ll have to wait and see if that actually happens.

“It’s a learning and a teaching moment for all of us,” she said. “Evelyn, Shaunie, since they’re the ones that are really getting it, I know them personally without editing and I don’t feel there was malice behind it. These are wonderful women. When it all boils down to it, OG is a wonderful woman as well. We need to take a moment and stop and think, and in these situations, we just react and go for the jugular. Who can be the pettier person? We need to change and let the petty be pretty.”

“I hope I can take my own advice if I do have another season and maybe be the sounding board and people can learn from me,” she added. “Like, ‘Damn, Kristin used to be with the comeback, but she took a moment and instead of saying, ‘F U b—h, she said, let me give you a hug and pray for you.’ So maybe we can figure it out.”

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