Killer Mike says he can forgive Bette Midler, but she needs to do better

The "Run the Jewels" rapper and activist encourages the actress to be more aware after accepting her apology for a tweet in which she is accused of being racially tone-deaf

Melanie Eversley

Oct 8, 2018

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Atlanta rapper Killer Mike says he can forgive singer and vocal anti-Trump activist Bette Midler for a tweet he says was disrespectful to black women.

But Killer Mike, who talked to TMZ at Los Angeles International Airport, also encouraged Midler to embrace her activism and connect with black women who are working to change things.

“Black women are treated worse than anyone,” Mike said. “What I would say to white liberal allies is we need more than allies, we need coconspirators. So if you’re going to use those examples, your ass needs to be next to Angela Davis advocating for whatever she’s advocating for; you need to be next to the sisters that are doing it and not just conveniently allying them when you have a grand statement to make.”

Midler has since deleted and apologized for the tweet, made in the wake of her disappointment about Saturday’s Senate confirmation of accused sex abuser Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. In it, she said, “Women are the n-word of the world.”

To underscore her point, Midler also wrote, “Raped, beaten, enslaved, married off, worked like dumb animals; denied education and inheritance; enduring the pain and danger of childbirth and life IN SILENCE for THOUSANDS of years.” She finished off by saying that women “are the most disrespected people on earth.”

It didn’t take long for Twitter to come after Midler, pointing out that no one has been treated worse than the Black woman and criticizing Midler for comparing the plight of the Black woman to what women as a whole experience.

Midler later apologized, tweeting:

The too brief investigation of allegations against Kavanaugh infuriated me. 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.

— Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) October 5, 2018

Killer Mike said Midler’s apology was a great start, but pointed out the experience of black women is unique.

“There’s a stigma that goes a lot of ways with being African-American, especially and African-American woman,” he said. “You’re viewed as angry. You’re viewed as pushy. You’re viewed as someone who’s being dishonest.”

He advised her to do what he tries to do in life: be quiet and listen.

“Me personally, I can forgive Bette Midler because over the course of my life I’ve seen her do more good than bad and she asked for forgiveness from a place of, I ‘m understanding; I understand the egregious thing I did,” Killer Mike said. “As a guy who watched Bette Midler movies as a kid I would be willing to say, all right, we’ll feed ya’ll with a long-handled spoon, put you all on probation.”