Eva Longoria apologizes for the remarks she made about Black women voters

In the euphoric rush that followed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ history-making election win late last week, longtime political activist and actor Eva Longoria appeared to make an MSNBC misstep in the way she assessed the victory. Longoria came out of an interview with host Ari Melber sounding as though she had credited the win to women Latinx voters while detracting from the work done by Black women to get Biden and Harris into the White House (and he who shall not be named out)."Women of colour showed up in big ways,” Longoria said. “Of course, you saw in Georgia what Black women have done but Latina women were the real heroines here, beating men in turnout in every state and voting for Biden-Harris at an average rate of 3:1." It’s long been known that Black women statistically support Democratic candidates at an exceptionally high rate and are therefore a crucial and powerful demographic in terms of getting them into office. At a glance, it certainly seems that Longoria was ranking the efforts of Latinx women higher on a national scale. “That spirit and perseverance that Latinas use in their daily life, the struggle to pay their bills and the struggle to show up to their jobs… that’s the same perseverance and spirit they used to show up to the polls,” she said.[video_embed id='2072975']RELATED: The historical significance of Kamala Harris as America's vice president[/video_embed]Following the outcry accusing her of not giving Black women the credit that was rightly theirs, Longoria tweeted an apology and a clarification of what she intended to say during the interview. What she had meant, she claimed, was to say that Latinx women were the “true heroines” when compared to the voting patterns of Lantinx men. The contrast she’d been aiming to draw was about gender, not race. Friends like Kerry Washington backed her up. “I know Eva like a sister. We have been in many trenches together. She is a fighter for all women. Read below. This is what she meant. This is how she truly feels," tweeted Washington, directing her followers to Longoria’s Twitter apology.

Please read ?????? pic.twitter.com/KO80U2yarD

— Eva Longoria Baston (@EvaLongoria) November 9, 2020

The actor’s social media following seemed to be split over the mea culpa, with some calling her statement an on-air slip up and others continuing to believe that her words were an intentional erasure of Black women voters (as well as Afro-Latinx voters) but Longoria has not backed down, posting multiple explanations of the message she intended to communicate.Whatever side of the argument viewers come down on, Longoria definitely got one thing right:

Unstoppable!!! Black women turned out 90% for Biden. I as a Latina, aspire to be as engaged as effective as they are!

— Eva Longoria Baston (@EvaLongoria) November 9, 2020

[video_embed id='2072937']Before you go: What a Joe Biden presidency means for Canada[/video_embed]