Bette Midler was thrown under the bus last night and slammed over what she thought she was a powerful statement about how women are perceived and treated in the world in light of the FBI’s brief and limited investigation into the sexual assault claim made against Kavanaugh by Christine Blasey Ford.
Midler tweeted a paraphrased line from one of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s more controversial songs entitled “Woman Is the N—-r of the World.”
Midler’s name began trending on Twitter immediately and continued to through the night. Her post instantly sparked outrage, with many arguing it erases the struggle of black women and is blatantly disrespectful to the African-American community in light of social issues in our country. Midler was also accused of showing her privilege and reminded that a white woman shouldn’t be marginalizing black women.
People also stressed that the struggle of white women can’t be compared to the history of racism, violence and systematic oppression that black women have faced, which her tweet “erased”.
Franchesca Ramsey
✔@chescaleigh
BLACK WOMEN EXIST BETTE
Midler acknowledged in a follow-up tweet that her message “offended many” but defended it by noting that it was originally spoken by Yoko Ono, “Which I never forgot. It rang true then, and it rings true today, whether you like it or not,” she wrote. “This is not about race, this is about the status of women; THEIR HISTORY.”
“I am an ally and stand with you; always have,” she wrote. “And I apologize.”
But that was not enough for many.
Midler’s explanation of the quote inflamed people even more.State Sen. Nina Turner (D-Ohio) told Midler that her white woman privilege was showing.
Rapper Talib Kweli Greene reminded her that “black women exist” and “are treated like niggers. You are not,” he tweeted to her. “Please stop erasing black women. Thank you.”
Later Midler apologized and acknowledged that black women “doubly suffer, both by being women and being black.”
Bishop Talbert Swan
✔@TalbertSwan
Nothing like a white woman telling another white woman that her offensive Tweet, which invalidated black suffering, “didn’t invalidate black suffering.”
This is a classic example of whitesplaining.
Shanita Hubbard
✔@msshanitarenee
How exhausting it is to have to even state this in 2018. But here we are.
Lura Groen@lura_groenNo ma’am.
Please don’t appropriate the racism Black people experience.
Sexism is bad enough as it is.
Racism is a different bad thing.
Some people experience both.
And this is a very bad tweet.
