Roseanne Reboot Gets Booted After Racist Valerie Jarrett Tweet
As the philosopher Mo’Nique eloquently put it, when you do clownery, the clown comes back to bite. Roseanne just got her rebooted show cancelled because she just had to be a Bozo.
Roseanne just couldn’t keep her racism in check. Ever since her show returned to the airwaves earlier this year, she’s been gassed up. The very conservatives who demand celebrities stay out of politics readily embrace her thoughts. The same ones swear on their Bibles that Colin Kaepernick is disrespecting the flag and anthem find solace in a woman who made a mockery of our anthem.
These birds of a feather have rushed to defend Roseanne’s free speech and right to employment but cheer Colin being blackballed. There’s been so much energy for Roseanne because she’s allegedly been keeping it real in a culture gone politically correct.
Nah.
Roseanne has degraded Michelle Obama, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, posed happily in Nazi gear and trumpeted conspiracy theories long before she decided to tweet that Valerie Jarrett was an ape. Still, ABC decided to keep her show on the air. The network ceded the moral authority because her ratings were still high. Although, the viewership dipped with each episode but yet many outlets were discounting the outrage. There was always a spin about why the numbers were looking softer than the 18 million launch. President Trump even called Roseanne to congratulate her on the viewership but James Shaw, who took down a gunman, almost turned into a pumpkin. Conscience and moral conviction were slow to respond to her antics because the money was good.
ABC was going to milk this cashcow because there are a lot of folks who do support Roseanne. Much like Donald Trump, she is perceived as “telling it like it is”. Well, not today Satan. The network finally decided that they had heard enough.
It’s easy to ask why Wanda Skyes, John Goodman, Sara Gilbert and a slew of others decided to sign on to the reboot to begin with. They’re established and not hurting for money to my latest TMZ intel. But there are also members of the cast and crew who have to eat. I can offer the benefit of doubt to those who genuinely believed in the premise of a show examining a family in the “heartland” from a different perspective other than the liberal one and what it means to love someone whose politics you differ from. On paper, it sounds good but Roseanne just couldn’t stop being Roseanne. She was never acting. Now her co-stars, writers, directors, stage hands, grips, boom operators, make up-artists, security are all out of jobs because in the Trump era, folks have been given tactic permission to be proud of their bigotry, xenophobia and racism.
By the end of the day, Roseanne will be a martyr to many in this country. Forget the black and brown bodies who are the victims of weaponized bigotry and racism. Never mind the asylum seekers who are being separated from their families, especially their children. The mass shootings that have become commonplace will continue to be dismissed as crisis actors who want attention. There is a segment of America whose hearts will bleed for Roseanne because she just can’t get to be a bigot in peace and insist accountability is a new form of oppression.
Again, nah. The clown just came back to bite.
