Vivica A. Fox’s sorry accusation of a ‘racial insult’ is a naked and belated attempt to cancel Ivanka Trump

Former Celebrity Apprentice star Vivica A. Fox waited six years to suggest a compliment from Ivanka Trump that she spoke well on the show had racist undertones. It’s hard to take this bid to smear Trump’s reputation seriously.

Not everyone speaks well. Whether you realize it or not, it’s not easy for many people to properly get their point across. It’s also a rare gift to be able to do this publicly. On a reality show like Celebrity Apprentice, the ability to communicate was key to helping you win. 

So when the daughter of the host says that you speak well, it’s a compliment to your abilities as a communicator. You would have to be a fool to think that it had anything to do with the color of your skin, or you’d have an ulterior motive for acting like you think such a thing.

Enter actress Vivica A. Fox. On a recent appearance on a show on the e! Network called “For Real: The Story of Reality TV”, Fox took the compliment and attempted to spin it into something that was racially motivated. 

She explained, “I’ll never forget that when I did ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ and Ivanka Trump, she said, ‘Wow, you speak very well,’”. I hate to say it. I don’t think she knew at the time that she was insulting us. I really think that she thought she was complimenting us. That it was like, ‘Oh, wow, you guys are intelligent.’”

The way that Fox told the story, you would be under the impression that Ivanka Trump had come on to the show in a KKK hood. Fox went out of her way to give the impression that Trump does not think that black people can speak well.

Let’s keep something in mind here. The episode in question aired in 2015. It has been six years since this happened, and until now, Fox has never uttered a peep about it. The idea that she found it so offensive, and didn’t even bring it up when the entire world was piling on Donald Trump, shows exactly how disingenuous her statement is.

If she legitimately felt like Ivanka Trump was making a stab at the color of her skin, she wouldn’t have waited until she was on a throwaway show on a cable network to raise a stink about it. After Celebrity Apprentice wrapped, she would have been on CNN or MSNBC talking about how offended she was and how she thinks the whole Trump family is six steps from Satan.

So let’s be honest about what this is. This is another instance of cancel culture popping its head up. More often than not, when people want to cancel someone, they feign offence over something that someone else did. But there’s nothing racist about saying someone speaks well. 

I had a black professor in college say that I spoke well. Am I to assume that he didn’t think white people could speak well very often? Of course not. Unless you were looking for an excuse to call someone a racist, there’s no justification for saying such a thing.

In the articles that I’ve written on cancel culture, I’ve made several stabs at what exists at the heart of it. It could very well be envy, anger or even a desire for self-righteousness – but I think more than anything it’s a desire for attention. 

These sorts of statements carry consequences, and often those attempting to cancel others are lionized as heroes by political allies. Ultimately, it doesn’t make it any more wrong morally. In this case, it’s just another instance of a past-their-prime celebrity attempting to find relevance by taking a jab at the Trump family. Sorry, Vivica, but after six years it’s impossible to take your complaints seriously.

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