ABC Cancels Roseanne Barr’s Show After A Racist Tweet About A Former Obama Aide

Photo by Stand-Up Sucks, LLC/Wikimedia Commons.

Just under three months after “Roseanne” returned to television after 21 years off the air, it’s been abruptly canceled by ABC after the show’s star, Roseanne Barr, made a racist comment about former Barack Obama aide Valerie Jarrett.

Barr likened the Iranian-born, African-American woman to an ape, tweeting: “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.”

Image via Roseanne Barr/Twitter.

“Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,” ABC said.

Wanda Sykes, one of the show’s consulting producers, quit promptly after Roseanne’s tweet.

Sara Gilbert, who plays Barr’s daughter on the show, called her co-star’s words “abhorrent.”

Although Barr apologized for the tweet and said she’s leaving Twitter, the damage had been done.

The 10th season of “Roseanne” revisited the Connor family in the Trump era and debuted to big ratings. It was praised by conservatives for representing pro-Trump America in a media landscape dominated by liberal themes. Liberals criticized the show for normalizing a president who stirs racial resentment, attacks immigrants, and brags about sexually assaulting women.

Critics say ABC was playing with fire when they signed on to work with Barr in the first place. An avid Trump supporter, she has a long history of tweeting right-wing conspiracy theories and making egregious political statements. Shortly after her Jarrett tweet, she falsely accused Chelsea Clinton of being married to a nephew of George Soros. Then she promoted the ridiculous conspiracy that Soros aided and abetted Nazis.

Soros is a prominent billionaire hedge fund manager who openly supports liberal causes. To right-wing conspiracists, especially anti-Semitic ones, he’s a bogeyman attempting to create a new global order.