‘I was an idiot. Truly sorry’ – NBA star Gilbert Arenas apologizes to Lupita Nyong’o over dark skin attacks

People of the same race can sometimes be racists to their own people, and it is a matter deep rooted in colorism. Lupita Nyong’o has been outspoken on colorism among black people and how it divides people of their own kind.

NBA star Gilbert Arenas is apologising to the Oscar winning actress for shaming her multiple times for her dark skin. The apology was rendered on Tuesday via Instagram to the “12 Years A Slave” star.

“We can’t come together as a race until the idiots of the race right their wrongs,” he wrote on Instagram. “My name is Gilbert and I was an idiot for attacking one of our queens for no reason. @Lupita Nyong’o, I am truly sorry for my coon behavior. #blacklivesmatterdeadandalive #blackexcellence.”

The 38-year-old athlete made the headlines for his derogatory remarks towards Nyong’o in 2017. He received serious backlash for his comments pertaining to a post he made on dark-skinned women on Instagram, Madamenoire reported.

To make matters worse, he added that a few dark- skinned women are beautiful and singled out the “Us” actress, saying she was not “cute”.

His post at the time was in response to a post from ProBlkThought that read, “Dear Black Girl: You don’t have to be mixed to be beautiful.”

He went full throttle in comments section saying, “How black are we talking??? Not to be funny can u name a beautiful black women on the outside … not brown skin … like tyrese black … top 50 most beautiful women off [sic] all time … the darkest women they have is (Keshia Knight Pulliam aka Rudy) (gab)) union) (taral hicks) (Serena Williams).”

He continued: “When u say African features black then u have (#1 lupita nyong’o) and she’s cute when the lights are off second is (Ajuma nasenyana) sorry but ewww so the black beautiful women u try to boost up is technically light skinned or brown skinned.”

At the time, he realised he might have over stepped and said, “I f*cked this up so I deserved the hatred that comes.” 

Was he remorseful, well his reaction to a fan calling him out in the comments section of a photo shared by Lupita could imply otherwise?

“@no.chill.gil hey looks it’s the black girl you said that looks better in the dar[k],” the follower wrote.

“@wg_bombshell_ everybody saying her(skin) looks beautiful how about her face tho?? Lights off,” he responded.

He then continued the rant, writing:

“Y’all tag me like she got a facelift and she went from a 3 to a 10… nope she’s just a 3 in blue water with some blue blockers on. This is no diff [than] a ugly girl with a fat a–. I’ll still beat just with the lights off, but she is glowing tho.”

Many are left wondering if his apology this time indicates a true change of heart and mindset. There are so many attacks on black people by others that we don’t need black people attacking each other.