Candace Owens’ recent appearances on Black media platforms are not winning over new fans from those who deem her to be a representation of anti-Blackness.
The conservative media figure sat down with “The Breakfast Club” and Joe Budden in March interviews that critics have called an attempt at an “image makeover,” shortly before it was announced that she was leaving The Daily Wire on March 22.
The network severed its partnership with Owens, who hosted an eponymous show there for three years, amid backlash for her comments regarding Israel and anti-Semitic theories. As a pro-Donald Trump and staunch Republican Party supporter, her messaging regarding Black people and the nonexistence of systemic racism have made her anathema to much of the Black community.
When speaking with Budden about whether or not she has Black pride, she had this to say, “I have pride. Period. This is important because this is the strength of the government, the division of everything. You should be a proud person if you are a good person, not because you are a Black person. If you’re a Black person and you’re a good person, you should be proud of yourself. But I was still Black when I was a bad person. So why would I go around and say I have pride?”
@joebudden Black America… #CandaceOwens #Humans #Patreon #BlackAmerica ♬ original sound – Joe Budden
The “evil Gabrielle Union,” as some now refer to her, further stated, “I want to get to a place where Black America goes through this awakening and I think we’re getting closer, I really do. I have a lot of hope for Black America that we are waking up slowly but surely, that people are being more receptive to some of the messages.”
“Joe, you’re dead wrong for having this hater on your show. She couldn’t say she was Black and proud. What?” read a comment on the interview teaser posted on TikToK. “She’s only black when she needs the naacp for a lawsuit,” wrote another person.
In 2007, she successfully launched a lawsuit against the Stamford Board of Education and received a $37,5000 settlement after claiming she was targeted with racist messages and threats from white students at her high school in Stamford, Connecticut. But in 2019, while speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, she declared, “America is not a racist country.”
We are not buying the Candace Owens Rebrand!! https://t.co/HZso7xyut8
— DAP (@DAPWrites2) March 30, 2024
Owens is married to white British businessman George Farmer. The couple of four years share three children. Her conversation with Charlamagne Tha God and DJ Envy were met with similar outrage.
“The most brutal smears I ever faced was the media’s attempt to convince black people, my own community, that I hated them. Finally, black America is recognize that they were intentionally mislead. That is thanks in large part to the Breakfast Club interview, and Joe Budden…[prayer hand emoji],” wrote Owens in a since-deleted Instagram Story post.
Despite her viewing the brief Black media tour as a success, her ostensible effort to rebrand has been viewed as a reminder of other Black women who took a contrarian stance against the Black community.
“SAME SCRIPT, DIFFERENT CAST: Remember Stacey Dash & Omarosa were used to tear down the Black community? Then they were fired from their conservative platforms & had to rebrand..Candace Owens getting that same treatment, I’m watching to see if or how far she’ll pivot..” read a post on X.
SAME SCRIPT, DIFFERENT CAST:
— Jerome Trammel, M.B.A (@MrJeromeTrammel) March 22, 2024
Remember Stacey Dash & Omarosa were used to tear down the Black community? Then they were fired from their conservative platforms & had to rebrand..
Candace Owens getting that same treatment, I’m watching to see if or how far she’ll pivot.. pic.twitter.com/Z2HZBI6mlu
Omarosa Manigault Newman went from trying to impress Trump while on “The Apprentice” to being chosen to serve as his top aide in the White House Office of Public Liaison. Months into Trump assuming office, she resigned — though insiders say she was fired — and later claimed she witnessed the former president use the N-word among other claims in her memoir “Unhinged.”
“I just can’t believe I fell for a con man, a con man who turned out to be the biggest fraud,” she told “Entertainment Tonight” in 2023.
“Her tell-all mea culpa won’t win her any brownie points with most blacks,” said “Why Black Lives Matter” author Earl Omari Hutchinson. “Their loathing of Omarosa is virtually frozen in stone. She’s still roundly lambasted as a two-bit opportunist, a racial sellout and an ego driven hustler.” Newman returned to her reality TV roots last year when she joined the cast of “House of Villains.”
“Clueless” actress Stacey Dash, also a conservative, drew criticism for her many divisive remarks regarding topics like race and white supremacy, and that Black History Month and Black media outlets like BET should be eliminated. Her views faired well with white executives who hired her as a Fox correspondent.
Though she may have been under the impression that her perspectives were valued, Dash would eventually admit to The Daily Mail to being used as “the angry, conservative, Black woman, and at that time in my life, it was who I was.” She was booted from the network in 2016.
Since then, she launched a failed run for a seat in Congress and opened up about her sobriety issues. Critics, though, have not forgotten about her past, and the same appears to apply to Owens.
