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“I want to apologize for my recent attempt at humor that missed the target and hit my people squarely in the heart. To all of you I say, I’m very sorry for my failed attempt at humor surrounding something that’s very sensitive to us: our hair,” Sheryl Underwood stated Wednesday on the “Steve Harvey Morning Show.”

As we all know, Sheryl Underwood is under serious fire for her now infamous comments about natural black hair that she made on the daily CBS gabfest she co-hosts, “The Talk.”  Where ever she meant for her comments to go, they didn’t get there. Where they went were downhill … when she questioned why Heidi Klum, the mother of biracial children, saved clippings of her children’s natural hair.

“Why would you save afro hair?” she asked. “You don’t never see us at the hair place, saying, ‘What I need is this curly, nappy, beady hair.’ That just seems nasty.”

When co-host Sarah Gilbert countered that she has saved her child’s hair clippings, Sheryl said this: “[That’s] probably some beautiful, long, silky stuff.”

That brings us to Sheryl’s very contrite and heartfelt apology which began this story. She told the Steve Harvey audience that she definitely heard from the people:

“You reminded me about the enormous platform that I’m blessed to have and that my words have power, and again, I hear you. I’ve always portrayed myself onstage and on TV and anywhere you see me to be strong enough to take the hit especially when I’m wrong…I was wrong,” she said.

Sheryl says the comment was a huge FAIL as comedy, and she promised to learn from the experience and earn back the trust of her fans.

“I’m grateful for the love that you all have shown me that love enough to pull my coattails and correct me when I’m wrong,” she said. “I made an inappropriate joke and an unfortunate statement that hurt the community that I love and work tirelessly for. I’ve worked over the years to earn your trust and your respect and I’m going to work any harder to get it back,” Sheryl added.

Meanwhile, Project Islamic Hope’s Najee Ali, representing a coalition of activists who demanded an apology from Sheryl, as reported by EURweb, had this response to her apology:

“Our coalition accepts Sheryl Underwood”s apology.  And although I don’t know Sheryl personally. Steve Harvey is my brother and friend. Steve is vouching for Sheryl. I trust and respect his call that Sheryl is sincere. So we’re calling off our Sept 9th protests outside CBS Studio’s in Hollywood where the “The Talk” is taped.