The daughter of civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote on Twitter Thursday that Americans need to stop comparing Roseanne Barr’s use of a racial slur to Samantha Bee’s use of the word “c—” to refer to Ivanka Trump.
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Bernice King slammed conservatives who offered the two incidents as evidence of a double standard on Thursday.
“Let’s stop calling each other names,” King wrote. “Also, let’s stop comparing an insult to a dehumanizing term used in oppressing Black people and sanctioning the Transatlantic Slave Trade, slavery, Jim Crow, lynching and the idea that Black men are so strong that they have to be shot 8 times.”
Barr was quickly fired this week by ABC after Barr tweeted that former Obama administration adviser Valerie Jarrett was the result of a cross between the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and the movie “Planet of the Apes.”
In comparison, some conservatives pointed to Bee’s use of the term “feckless c—” on Wednesday during her show. Bee issued an apology for using the insult to refer to Trump’s inaction over her father’s immigration policies but her network has not indicated it will issue any further punishment.
Conservative critics suggested the response to Bee is proof that liberal celebrities are treated differently in response to profane comments than conservatives such as Barr, who is a Trump supporter.
Among those claiming a double standard were President Trump and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who have called for Bee’s firing.
“The language used by Samantha Bee last night is vile and vicious,” Sanders said on Thursday.
“The collective silence by the left and its media allies is appalling,” she added.
Many observers were quick to point out the difference between the term Bee used and making a comparison between African-Americans and apes. The use of such insults has a long racist history.
Both Bee and Barr apologized for the incidents.