Roseanne Sorry For Racist ‘Planet Of The Apes’ Tweet About Obama Adviser

Image by Getty

Roseanne Barr, once a groundbreaking symbol of what it meant to be a real, working-class woman onscreen, continues on her ill-fated mission to make all of her one-time fans feel like they have no choice but to despise her.
The most recent snafu occurred on Twitter. “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj,” tweeted Barr. She was attacking Obama-era White House adviser Valerie Jarett. She followed that up with a tweet about how Muslims are not a race. She then followed that up with a declaration of her intent to leave Twitter.
I apologize. I am now leaving Twitter.
— Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) May 29, 2018
Like most celebrities, she’ll likely be back in a few days. Did Barr’s racially charged tweets qualify as hate speech, by Twitter’s often confusing standards? Has Barr finally realized the error of her ways? Or has she realized the blurring of the boundaries between celebrity and civilian are getting too blurred on the great equalizer of Twitter, allowing outraged plebians to crowd up her mentions?
Who knows? All we know is that it gives us regular folk a brief respite from getting outraged about the tarnished legacy of a Jewish comedy icon. The tweets have since been deleted. Barr’s reps did not respond to a request for comment.
Shira Feder writes. She’s at [email protected]
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
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 polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
- 2
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
- 3
News School Israel trip turns ‘terrifying’ for LA students attacked by Israeli teens
- 4
Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture Cardinals are Catholic not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
-
Fast Forward Halal restaurant opening in Congress is like ‘Muslim conquest of Jerusalem,’ says GOP congressman
-
Fast Forward Germany formally classifies far-right AfD party as extremist, in blow to Nazi-linked populist movement
-
Fast Forward Trump taps shock jock Sid Rosenberg and a Haredi newspaper publisher for Holocaust Memorial Council
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
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 comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag 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 [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.