Alfonso Riberio is stirring up controversy after saying in an interview that he feels alienated in the Black community because of his interracial marriage. Following his comments, a cringeworthy video in which he makes sexually explicit comments about his attraction to white women resurfaced on social media, taking the controversy to a higher level.
While speaking with Atlanta Black Star in July, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star confessed that he doesn’t feel support from the Black community. “Being Black isn’t something that I try to be. It’s who I am,” Ribeiro said. When asked about a specific scene from the iconic sitcom where his character Carlton Banks was met with skepticism while trying to pledge a Black fraternity, Ribeiro confirmed that he has encountered similar situations in real life. “It still happens almost every day, unfortunately. I am in a mixed relationship,” Ribeiro said. “And I get things and looks and comments constantly.”
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“I’m never going to be white and I’m never going to be fully supported in the Black house,” he said, seemingly implying that Black people would hesitate to support him because of his marriage to a white woman. “So I’m in my own little world with support from almost no one to be in love with someone I’ve fallen in love with. How does that make sense? It doesn’t.”
After his comments made headlines, Twitter users weighed in on the topic, letting their strong opinions fly on the social media platform. “Two things I never heard in my life, one, a black person ever mention Alfonso Ribeiro wife, two, Alfonso Ribeiro ever mention anything pertaining to Black America,” one Twitter user wrote. “Black people are the welcoming people in this country, he has a guilty conscience or just paranoid about nothing.”
Maybe this is why we didn’t care about your marriage or why you haven’t been invited to BET @alfonso_ribeiropic.twitter.com/6PlId77Zk0
— L E X (@iamlexstylz) August 1, 2021
As the story made its way around social media, one Twitter user posted an old video of Ribeiro onstage at a concert making several sexually explicit statements about his love and lust for white women. The video can be viewed above. The reaction to the video was overwhelmingly negative, with some people commenting that it seemed like Ribeiro himself was “preoccupied” with his mixed-race marriage and insinuating that he might be projecting. “The clip is proof that it’s he who is preoccupied with his having a white wife and NOT the Black community,” one user tweeted. “No one cares about who he’s married to or what women he dates. He seems obsessed with letting folks know.”