Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

‘Roseanne’ Cancelled By ABC After ‘Repugnant’ Racist Tweet

ABC announced on Tuesday it will immediately cancel the show “Roseanne,” following a racist tweet from the sitcom’s star, Roseanne Barr.

“Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,” ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey said in a statement.

Barr, who is Jewish, wrote a tweet saying that Obama-era White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, who is African-American, was descended from apes.

“Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj,” she wrote.

The show, which was a critical and commercial hit in the 1990s and was revived earlier this year, was the “highest rated and most watched series of the broadcast season,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

But ABC was also criticized for giving a platform to Barr, an outspoken conservative who has a history of making racially inflammatory statements and spreading conspiracy theories.

Contact Haley Cohen at hcohen@forward.com

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version