Midler apologizes after tweet backlash
As protests in Washington unfolded Thursday in response to the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, actress and singer Bette Midler took to Twitter to make her feelings known, including tweeting an offensive phrase from a John Lennon and Yoko Ono song, sparking backlash.
“‘Women, are the n-word of the world,’ ” the “Hocus Pocus” actress, 72, tweeted Thursday. “They are the most disrespected creatures on earth.” She was paraphrasing the title of a 1972 song written by Lennon and Ono. On Twitter, people condemned the actress and called on her to delete the tweet.
Midler responded a couple of hours later. But instead of apologizing, she doubled down on her previous comments, emphasizing that her message was not about race but gender. “I gather I have offended many by my last tweet,” she wrote. “This is not about race, this is about the status of women.” Midler would later delete both tweets. She would also apologize hours after the initial tweet.
“The too brief investigation of allegations against Kavanaugh infuriated me,” she stated. “Angrily I tweeted w/o thinking my choice of words would be enraging to black women who doubly suffer, both by being women and by being black. I am an ally and stand with you; always have. And I apologize.”