Watch your mouth, Miss Roseanne
4th June 2018 · 0 Comments
By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor
All comedic actress Roseanne Barr was trying to do was have a little fun, so why are so many people upset with her?
Barr’s comments were aimed at Valerie Jarrett, a high-ranking member of the administration of President Barack Obama. Barr’s career has been reignited since she came forward to publicly express her fondness and support for President Donald Trump.
Barr’s now-deleted tweet read: “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby(equals)vj.”
Given the current racial climate in the U.S. and the anti-Black sentiment being expressed by everyone from FOX News reporters to top members of the Trump administration, it is likely that Barr assumed that she could get away with publicly comparing a prominent Black member of the previous administration to an animal because of her appearance.
Unfortunately, Miss Barr miscalculated and ended up having incensed folks who are still coming for her on social media.
“I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans,” a contrite Roseanne Barr wrote in a post on Twitter Tuesday. “I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks. I should have known better. Forgive me-my joke was in bad taste.”
In another tweet, later that day, Barr wrote, “I apologize. I am now leaving Twitter.
“Don’t feel sorry for me, guys!!-I just want to apologize to the hundreds of people, and wonderful writers (all liberal) and talented actors who lost their jobs on my show due to my stupid tweet.”
I have been trying my best to figure out why members of the Party of Lincoln and other Trump supporters are still spending so much time and energy drying to dress down former associates and members of the Obama administration.
Could it possibly be as simple as an ongoing need to right a perceived wrong in this country by putting these people of color back in “their place” or driving home the point that “It’s Trump time!!!”?
Nearly two years after his historic second presidential term ended, one still hears conservative news organizations and elected officials from the Far Right bad-mouthing President Barack Obama and programs and initiatives associated with him like DACA and the Affordable Care Act. Particularly interesting are radio ads that still try to convince poor whites that clearly benefitted from “Obamacare” that the program was bad for them and it needed to be replaced with a new healthcare program that sounds somewhat like the Affordable Care Act but has been given a different name.
It’s clear that the American people, despite being hoodwinked into sending a Twitter fiend and foul-mouthed rich kid to Pennsylvania Avenue in 2016, aren’t buying the GOP’s spin on DACA, which is designed to protect young immigrants or the Trump administration’s efforts to cause the ACA to self-destruct,
For whatever reason, ABC Network executives were quick to take action against Roseanne Barr, a lot quicker than most people expected.
“Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,” ABC Entertainment chief Channing Dungey said in a statement.
“There was only one thing to do here, and that was the right thing,” Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Co. Robert Iger said via Twitter.
“Thank you, (at)ABCNetwork. You did the right thing,” former M.L. K. Jr. aide and current U.S. Rep. John Lewis said via Twitter. “There is not any room in our society for racism or bigotry.”
“Roseanne Barr’s comments were appalling and reminiscent of horrific time in our history when racism was not only acceptable but promoted by Hollywood. We applaud ABC for taking a stand against racism by canceling ‘Roseanne.’ We commend the network and … Dungey for placing the values of diversity, inclusion and respect for humanity above ratings,” NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson said in a statement.
Even FOX News’ Bill O’Reilly managed to say that Roseanne gave ABC no choice but to terminate her after she made a “vicious” attack on Valerie Jarrett.
But hasn’t Bill O’Reilly, his colleagues at FOX News, President Donald Trump and others in the GOP said a lot more about President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and their daughters and Black people in general?
Hasn’t President Donald Trump’s use of despicable language to refer to Black and Brown people go all the way back to the days of the Central Park jogger case after a white woman was sexually assaulted and severely beaten? Did the businessman take back his words after it was learned that the Central Park 5 were framed in the case?
I got to be honest: There is no way that I could even imagine allowing somebody like Roseanne Barr to live rent-free in my head. She’s a non-factor and a freaking joke.
Personally, I think the more she flaps her gums, on and off the air, the more she reveals about herself and that segment of the U.S. population that appears to be hopelessly devoted to both Roseanne and President Donald Trump.
Neither one of these overachieving biscuits-eaters has ever uttered a thought worth preserving for future generations.
But perhaps President Trump could help Roseanne get a new gig like singing the national anthem… Remember the last time she gave that a try, with all the crotch grabbing and spitting on the baseball mound?
Not exactly an iconic moment in U.S. history.
Trump and Roseanne are mere distractions. We gotta get used to sleeping with one eye open and paying closer attention to the appointment and election of all these judges and lawmakers who see nothing wrong with undoing the limited progress made in the U.S. since the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts.
Trump may soon be out of sight and out of mind but the judges, bureaucrats and others he has appointed and endorsed may linger for decades and carry out their duties under the landmark Supreme Court ruling that said Black people have no rights that whites are bound by law to respect. Stay woke, y’all.
This article originally published in the June 04, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
