Tichina Arnold is apologizing for the comments she made about the idea of reverse colorism when she appeared on Deon Cole’s “Funny Knowing You” show. Arnold brought up the idea of reverse colorism after singer Ari Lennox said earlier this year that she noticed colorism happening on Martin in the 1990s.

Arnold says she reflected on her comments after a conversation with her television sons from The Neighborhood, Marcel Spears and Sheaun McKinney.

What did Tichina Arnold say about seeing reverse colorism on ‘Martin’?

Speaking to Cole, Arnold said her co-star, Tisha Campbell, experienced reverse colorism as a light-skinned woman on the popular sitcom. The 56-year-old star suggested that dark-skinned girls shunned Campbell because they didn’t want to see her get close to the show’s star, Martin Lawrence.

“Even with Tisha, people don’t realize that reverse colorism happens as well,” Arnold told Cole, per The Grio. “I remember Tisha, she would cry sometimes. It would be so bad because we had the live studio audience and the girls, the Black girls would come in, and they were there for Martin. That was Martin [during] ‘Def Comedy Jam’ and stuff. So, it was that kind of crowd that would come to our shows and they would laugh so hard they would bang on the floor.”

On Thursday, however, Arnold went to Instagram, in a video with McKinney and Speas, to say that she regrets the comments she made about reverse colorism.

“Listen, we all have opinions. We all have our rights to opinions, but we also have responsibility. So when I misspeak, I like to apologize for that because you’re never too old to learn,” Arnold said. “So I made a statement on Deon Cole about reverse colorism. I was speaking too fast, just speaking from experience, but I never want to insult anyone for no reason. I misspoke, I spoke too soon.”

What did Ari Lennox say about seeing colorism on ‘Martin’?

Lennox talked about colorism on Martin when she sat down for an interview in July, as Blavity previously reported. The singer said she remembers watching the show in the 90s and realizing that Arnold’s character, Pam, was facing colorism.

“The thing that pissed me off about Martin was how much he was goin’ in on Pam, and this is coming from a girl who loves a joking a** movie and even when the joking movie is like ‘Damn, that was f**ked up.’ There are some things where I draw the line,” Lennox said in the interview, per People. “Pam was so f**king beautiful and so fine, and I just feel like growing up as a chocolate girl, I don’t even know if I was able to understand the greatness of Pam.”

American singer Ari Lennox speaks out, saying Martin’s jokes about Pam’s looks still hit a nerve: “I’ll always feel a way about that. It’s disrespectful to dark-skinned women; she’s beautiful.”
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