Advance warning taking Ambien can make you racist. Well, that’s the sorry excuse Roseanne Barr has made for calling Valerie Jarrett an ape. Jarrett, a high-ranking lawyer in the former Obama administration, is not the first Black woman Barr called a primate. Nope. Barr has form. In 2013 Barr called Susan Rice, Obama’s former national security adviser ‘A man with big swinging ape balls.’ Charming. And so sadly but necessarily, Roseanne had to go because racism is not acceptable. And apologies are no longer good enough.
Roseanne was the first working-class show among twee America TV and broke new ground. Roseanne dealt with serious issues. And in series seven Roseanne encourages her son DJ to kiss a black girl. But later becomes aware she is may be afraid of a man because he is Black. In the new series, Roseanne has a Black granddaughter. How distressing must it be for the child actor to hear the leading lady thinks she is a primate. So, it was doubly disappointing, reading Barr’s racist tweet.
Black Women
The irony is, ABC took a huge leap of faith bringing back Roseanne after an absence of twenty years. And it was a Black woman who made that call. ABC appointed African-American Channing Dungey to head up programmes in February 2016. Dungey revived the show. And Roseanne was ABC’s biggest hit for 2017/18 season.
And Roseanne’s sarcastic caustic character was in part due to African-American comic Wanda Sykes. Sykes was a writer and consultant producer on the show. And threw the towel in very early after the racist ‘drug’ induced tweet appeared. Dungey, followed by cancelling the series.
Disney, the family channel, owns ABC. And Disney would have found it difficult to manage the racist and challenging Barr. So, in the long run, Barr would have been a problem for Disney.
Repercussions For Roseanne’s Racism
Comparisons have arisen because Bill Maher compared Trump to an orangutan and Sam Bee called Ivanka Trump the C-word. But they are both white people, so they are inappropriate comparisons to racism. And Michelle Wolf, comedian, (clip below) also addresses the pretend issue of double standards from the historical aspect.
Racism is a moral issue. And there must be repercussions for people who flaunt racism publicly. Michelle Wolf says that given Barr’s history of racist tweets the show should not have been revived. I do not think there should even be a spinoff even though the show championed working class people.
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I wonder if she felt that the hit show would have protected her real motive as being a racist and making people accept her as normal in society. But the spotlight of truth and money shines bright!!
Thanks for the comment EBJ. It’s sad to see Roseanne go out this way. There are those who would say Roseanne is not racist, perhaps even ill. I don’t accept that drugs and alcohol make people racist. It brings out what was already there. Roseanne is an excellent study. For at some points her values are liberal, but when she needs to throw a group under the bus, it has been Black women. And that is because Barr sees Black women as expendable. But let’s not forget she has form as an anti-Semite.