Alison Roman issues formal apology to Chrissy Teigen and Marie Kondo, but angry fans say she is 'canceled'
Best-selling cookbook author Alison Roman was at the receiving end of social media fury following the comments she made about Chrissy Teigen and Marie Kondo's ventures in a recent interview.
On Friday, Roman's interview with the New Consumer spread like wildfire, and Teigen and Kondo's fans called her out for targeting women of color adding that she did not have her two cents for Goop or lifestyle ventures by other white women.
Soon afterward, Teigen expressed she was hurt with comments, and that it was a "huge bummer and hit me hard".
Quick to do damage control, Roman tweeted out an apology on Friday itself, saying, "Hi @chrissyteigen! I sent an email but also wanted to say here that I'm genuinely sorry I caused you pain with what I said. I shouldn't have used you /your business (or Marie's! [Kondo]) as an example to show what I wanted for my own career- it was flippant, careless and I'm so sorry."
But dragging down women of color is not welcome in 2020 and, in order to avoid any more backlash, Roman went ahead and issued a formal apology to both Asian women she had called out in that interview. "I need to formally apologize to Chrissy Teigen and Marie Kondo. I used their names disparagingly to try and distinguish myself, which I absolutely do not have an excuse for," her lengthy letter began. "It was stupid, careless and insensitive."
It was only after the 'Dining In' author had taken the time to read over her interview and her choice of words that she figured out it was just wrong. When she passed those remarks on Teigen and Kondo, she says she was not aware of her privilege. "The fact that it didn't occur to me that I had singled out two Asian women is one hundred percent a function of my privilege (being blind to racial insensitivities is a discriminatory luxury)," she explained.
To say that Roman made many fans upset is not even cutting it. And Twitter is still having none of it, especially since most of Roman's apology was half-baked. "Who did Alison Roman sell out to in order to afford the publicist that wrote that apology?" tweeted one. "I would like to never hear the name alison roman again and also to never write another word in my life," tweeted another.
"Alison Roman sucks for coming at my girl Chrissy like that. Thank you, next," tweeted a fan. "And just like that, alison roman ceased to be twitter’s main character du jour, replaced by ‘80s rock musician bryan adams doing a big ol’ racism while promoting veganism in the same breath. so it goes," added a user.
"After a weekend of reflecting on potential $$ loss this comes out.... canceled," tweeted one. "I’ll bet Alison Roman is less horrified at Amy Schumer’s cooking show than she would have been last week!" pointed one out.
Not just that. Roman is facing backlash for basing her work on Asian culture and then making unruly statements. "So this lady Alison Roman is exploiting Asian culture and cuisine, but have an issue with actual Asian women embracing their culture and profiting from it."
Her very popular recipe 'Spiced Chickpea Stew With Coconut and Turmeric' is being called out for what it is -- not a stew and a curry! "Roman made herself a curry and refused to acknowledge that she had made a curry, and this is colonialism as cuisine. This is exactly what people have been grumbling about—the people who often aren’t included in the highest influencer echelons, as Roman now is," Roxana Hadidi pointed out in her column.
"I'm always leery of when folks start jumping on the bandwagon of Asian culture because once we stop being entertaining to them people like Alison Roman have no hesitation in turning to playground level racism," added another.
Many are also pointing out how she is already a sellout. "Sorry I am absolutely still thinking about this. I don't know, I find it absolutely wild that Alison Roman is cosigning twelve* different direct to consumer kitchen brands."
In fact, Roman is so canceled that people want nothing to do with her or any of her offerings anymore. "Alison Roman is not a 'girls girl' she does not support other women and that is beyond evident. Let’s not forget her nasty comments about Selena Gomez getting a Show on HBO as well. Whatever she’s selling I’m not buying from faux apologies to cookbooks."
Safe to say, once you make statements like these there is no returning from there.