Roseanne Quits Twitter after Making Racist Joke about Obama Adviser

UPDATE (1:55PM): Roseanne has officially been canceled by Channing Dungey, president of ABC Entertainment. Read our update here: ‘Roseanne’ Canceled By ABC After Roseanne Barr’s Racist Tweet

Roseanne Barr is once again making headlines, and once again they aren’t focused on the success of her revived sitcom on ABC. This time all attention is focused on a since deleted tweet involving the Muslim Brotherhood, an adviser to Barack Obama, and Planet of the Apes.

In a response thread on a story tweeted out by a right-wing website, the sitcom star replied: “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj”

Translation: Valerie Jarrett, one of Barack Obama’s former advisers, is what you get when you add the Muslim Brotherhood to Planet of the Apes. For more context, Jarrett is African-American, so the “apes” part is incredibly racist; and she has no ties to the Sunni Muslim organization, but that hasn’t stopped right-wing conspiracy theorists from targeting her for years, falsely claiming that she wanted to make America “more Islamic.”

You can see the now deleted tweet below:

After the deleted tweet drew wide criticism, Barr apologized on Twitter and announced she was leaving the platform.

This is far from the first time Barr has publicly quit Twitter. Her last break came a few weeks ago when she left Twitter due to its “anti-Semitism.” She came back two hours later. This is also far from the first time that Barr has gotten called out for her tweets. In the days following the premiere of the Roseanne revival, Barr tweeted a Nazi salute at a Parkland shooting survivor.

This latest dust-up has once again made people wonder what ABC makes of its most notable star tweeting Nazi imagery and comparing a former White House adviser to Planet of the Apes. Some reporters have suggested that ABC has more or less given up:

Barr’s ex-husband Tom Arnold, himself a former writer on Roseanne, replied to that tweet saying that while ABC can’t control Barr, they’ve “figured out a way to control” him:

Even Barr’s latest apology tweet doesn’t ring true to some, including MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell.

While Barr has issued an apology, ABC has not yet released a statement.

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UPDATE 5/29/18, 12:14 PM ET: Comedian Wanda Sykes, who served as a consulting producer on ABC’s Roseanne revival, has announced on Twitter that she will not return to the show next season.

(via The Wrap)

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