‘Roseanne Who?’ Valerie Jarrett Is Just Fine, Thanks For Asking

Valerie Jarrett and some lady Image by GETTY IMAGES/FORWARD MONTAGE
Valerie Jarrett sprang back into the public eye in May, when Roseanne Barr tweeted a deeply racist personal attack on her, resulting in her show “Roseanne” being cancelled.
But before that, Jarrett, the former advisor to President Obama, was trilingual, a senior law professor, a board member of an investment group, and an ongoing advisor to the Obama foundation. And now, she’s still all of those things.
“Roseanne who?” she laughed, asked about the incident Wednesday on The View. “Look, in all seriousness, as I said before, I’m fine. I am just fine.” Barr, who originally apologized (oddly,) has since released a second statement which is both more defensive and offensive.
“Now, if one of you said something like that about me, it might hurt my feelings, but this isn’t what keeps me up at night,” Jarrett chuckled to the hosts of The View. “What keeps me up at night are those families being separated on the border…or our children who go to school worrying about whether they’re going to be safe.” She gravely added, “These are the things that keep me up at night, not a racist tweet. Racist tweets and profane videos — not so much.”
Barr is set to give her first TV interview since the tweet, and her subsequent firing, on Thursday on Fox News’ Hannity, but Jarrett won’t be watching. “There are so many issues that are more important. I won’t be watching, and I hope you all won’t be watching either.”
Jenny Singer is the deputy lifestyle editor for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny
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.
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.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Fast Forward A Chicagoan wanted to protest Elon Musk — and put a swastika sticker on a Jewish man’s Tesla
-
Fast Forward NY attorney general orders car wash to stop ripping off Jews with antisemitic ‘Passover special’
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
-
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.