Catfish Host Black Girls Rock

Photo: Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic.

On Tuesday night, BET aired the 2016 Black Girls Rock! Awards. The ceremony celebrates the individuals working to uplift and empower young Black women and shines light on the challenges they face. Amandla Stenberg, Rihanna, Shonda Rhimes, and Danai Gurira were among the honorees. Their speeches were inspiring; it was an altogether beautiful night.

But then, for some reason, Catfish's Nev Schulman — the host of the MTV show about people finding out they've been deceived by people they've formed online relationships with — decided to chime in with a painfully tone-deaf tweet. "#BlackGirlsRock I totally agree. They also tend to #Catfish a lot. Just sayin'." Ugh. Really, Nev? Just sayin'? We think you mean "Just casually propagating harmful racial stereotypes about a marginalized group to my 859,000 followers." Here is a purported screenshot of the post as captured by one Twitter user.

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What happened next is not surprising: People got pissed. Many tweets called Schulman out on the inappropriate post — especially given he shared it using the Black Girls Rock hashtag on a night intended to celebrate young Black women — not make insulting generalizations about them like it's NBD. Here are some of the reactions.

I am TIRED of the blatant disrespect of black women. On our night to shine too. Nev is cancelled. @NevSchulman ??? pic.twitter.com/gQKd0n1zZK
— anime princess (@melaninbarbie) April 6, 2016

So @NevSchulman decided to insult black woman on the night that #BlackGirlsRock aired? pic.twitter.com/l3QPFIDpnG
— Ᏸecca (@MJStarLover) April 6, 2016

Nev Schulman is what happens when a certain kind of NYC white child realizes he ain't never gonna be smarter or more interesting than BW
— OriginalRudeGyal (@Blackamazon) April 6, 2016

So I see @NevSchulman joined the bash Black Woman club yesterday. It's amazing to see how much people hate us. Openly. Consistently.
— Leslie Mac (@LeslieMac) April 6, 2016

Schulman soon apologized for his hurtful words and thanked those who helped him understand exactly how he was in the wrong. "You're right to be upset & don't have to accept my apology, but I am deeply sorry to those whom I offended and learned a valuable lesson," he wrote in one of several tweets.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to speak with me tonight and promote communication and understanding. Nothing but love and respect.
— Nev Schulman (@NevSchulman) April 6, 2016

Thank u @melaninporn for taking the time to help me understand some of the issues POC deal w/. Sorry to all I upset. pic.twitter.com/ws9T1JraWf
— Nev Schulman (@NevSchulman) April 6, 2016

Thanks. This was an important lesson for me and hopefully can be one for a lot of other people too. https://t.co/yTah6yq397
— Nev Schulman (@NevSchulman) April 6, 2016

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