Tyrese Gibson refuses to apologise for fat comments

Transformers star Tyrese Gibson has refused to apologise for making insensitive comments about overweight people after coming under fire from fans. The singer-turned-actor caused a backlash after he labelled overweight people “fat and nasty” during an interview with AllHipHop.com last week (begs09Apr13) to promote his documentary A Black Rose That Grew Through Concrete.
When asked whether he thought that, as an entertainer, he had a responsibility to promote a healthy lifestyle, the former model launched into a tirade, alleging overweight people only have themselves to blame.
He said, “No two situations are the same. If you are fat and nasty and you don’t like the way you look, do something about it. It’s simple. When you take a shower and you put your fat, nasty body in the shower and by the time you get out, the mirrors are all steamed up so you don’t look at what you did to yourself.
“That may sound offensive or insensitive but ultimately, you are big as hell because you have earned that s**t. You worked your a** off to eat everything in sight to get big as hell. If you got a problem with the way you look, then you need to do something about it.”
The star has now taken to Twitter.com to defend himself, insisting his words have been misunderstood and that he made the remarks out of concern for overweight Americans.
In a series of posts, he writes, “I look online now my words get twisted about + (plus) size women? it’s unreal out here… I’m not apologizing for what I said… I’m apologizing for the bad choice of wording and execution of my point around obesity… Y’all seen my documentary… I was brought in this world from a plus size mother and my sisters are plus size as well… I am concerned always… We always associate addictions to cocaine, Heroine (sic), and or alcoholic abuse… Food is the #1 addiction in American (sic).”