Cheerios Ad Actress On Racist Backlash: Those People Haven't 'Made It To This Century' (VIDEO)

One of the stars of the Cheerios commercial that recently incited racist backlash says she was surprised to discover there were people who could possibly have a problem with the idea of a mixed-race family.

“Maybe it was naive of me, but I shot it just like any other job, commercial, otherwise, that I work on,” actress Whitney Avalon, who plays the mom in the ad, told HuffPostLive. “I don’t personally have any issue whatsoever with whatever color people’s skin happens to be in a family and nobody I know -- as far as I know -- does, so I was actually surprised that there was this contingent that apparently hadn’t made it to this century.”

The ad, which premiered last month, incited a wave of racist backlash online, eventually causing the YouTube comments to be shut down. Cheerios stood by the commercial earlier this week when Camille Gibson, vice president for marketing at the company, told the Associated Press: “We felt like we were reflecting an American family.”