Disgraced comedian Roseanne Barr took to YouTube this week to defend her racist tweet about a former aide of Barack Obama, claiming she did not know Valerie Jarrett was black.
On Friday, Barr posted a video to her YouTube account more than a week after she said she would participate in a sit-down television interview. In the video, Barr is smoking a cigarette, looking visibly frustrated, when she screams: “I thought the bitch was white!”
Barr was referring to Valerie Jarrett, who served as a senior adviser for Obama during his eight years in the White House. In May, Barr tweeted that Jarrett looked like the “Muslim brotherhood & Planet of the apes had a baby.” The comment prompted immediate backlash, resulting in the cancellation of the ABC reboot of her popular 1980s and ’90s sitcom, Roseanne.
Barr had previously discussed the situation once before, telling Rabbi Shmuley Boteach in a podcast interview that she felt “remorse” and “never would have wittingly called any black person…a monkey.”
Only July 8, Barr tweeted “To my wonderful fans who I treasure and love-who have carried me these past weeks when I was 2 weak 2 carry myself: I will be doing a TV interview this week. I’ll tell u about it tomorrow!”
But the following day she backtracked, tweeting: “After a lot of thought, I decided that I won’t be doing any TV interviews, too stressful & untrustworthy 4 me & my fans.”
