Yesterday, ABC decided to cancel Roseanne Barr's show after the actress posted racist content on her Twitter account.
The problematic content in question was a tweet she posted about Valerie Jarrett, a Senior Advisor to former U.S. president Barack Obama. The tweet was immediately pulled up as being discriminatory towards Jarrett's race, as she is an African American who was born in Iran.
Barr attempted to brush the tweet off as a "joke," and stated in a subsequent tweet, "ISLAM is not a RACE, lefties. Islam includes EVERY RACE of people".
Unfortunately, Barr's network were tired of having to pick up the pieces after every online rant she conducted, and decided instead to call it a day with her self-titled show.
At first, she appeared to take the news gracefully, and said she would be quitting Twitter... but that didn't last long.
In a series of tweets, Barr first seemed as if she was apologizing for her actions, but later switched to defending herself.
"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," she said first of all.
A matter of minutes later, she added: "hey guys, don't defend me, it's sweet of you 2 try, but...losing my show is 0 compared 2 being labelled a racist over one tweet-that I regret even more."
And then she went on to blame her sleeping pills for the racist tweet:
"Guys I did something unforgiveable so do not defend me. It was 2 in the morning and I was ambien tweeting-it was memorial day too-i went 2 far & do not want it defended-it was egregious Indefensible. I made a mistake I wish I hadn’t but…don’t defend it please. ty"
However, she then did a complete U-turn and said that she would be staying on Twitter, and will continue to defend herself - even though she asked others not to do the same just moments earlier.
"I’m sorry 4 my tweet, AND I will also defend myself as well as talk to my followers. so, go away if u don’t like it. I will handle my sadness the way I want to. I’m tired of being attacked & belittled more than other comedians who have said worse."
She also retweeted posts that shifted the blame from herself to ABC, as well as support from others who have been called out for racism in the past.
All in all, Barr's Twitter account looks very confusing right now. Some of her tweets are justifying her actions, others are an attempt to pass the blame, and some are even straight-up criticisms that others have posted.
ABC have since released a statement over their decision to cancel the show, with Channing Dungey, the network’s president of entertainment, saying: "Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values and we have decided to cancel her show."
Whether or not she continues her Twitter tirade is yet to be seen, but one thing's for sure: Roseanne won't be on ABC again anytime soon.
