Bette Midler under fire after tweeting Black men paid to be ‘blackground’ at Trump rally
Bette Midler, no stranger to racial controversy is being blasted for insinuating Blacks were paid to be at the event, and using an incendiary term to describe them
Bette Midler is the target of backlash after suggesting President Trump paid to bring in African American supporters to one of his recent rallies as “blackground.”
Taking to Twitter on Wednesday, Middler shared an image of the rally, which had a host of Black men standing behind the president. She tweeted out a message alleging the president paid for their presence to her nearly 2 million followers, according to USA Today.
“Look, there are African American men in this shot! How much did he pay them to be ‘blackground’?” the 73-year-old actress tweeted.
Look, there are African American men in this shot! How much did he pay them to be “blackground”? pic.twitter.com/pTkoHTIpQl
— Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) July 24, 2019
“Wow, Bette! That’s some racist crap right there. I guess an old, white woman like yourself gets to decide what and how black people should believe and vote,” responded one user.
Others were critical of Middler assuming that Trump would not have supporters of varying faces. Additional words used to describe her tweet was “disgusting” and “sick.”
Others, including Black conservatives, and at least one celebrity, laid into her calling her blatantly racist:
She’s assuming that black men can’t think for themselves and need to be bribed to be at a trump rally. If you can’t see how this is racist then you are a racist too.
— Desert Runner (@DesertRunner9) July 25, 2019
She’s assuming that black men can’t think for themselves and need to be bribed to be at a trump rally. If you can’t see how this is racist then you are a racist too.
— Desert Runner (@DesertRunner9) July 25, 2019
She’s assuming that black men can’t think for themselves and need to be bribed to be at a trump rally. If you can’t see how this is racist then you are a racist too.
— Desert Runner (@DesertRunner9) July 25, 2019
Middler has yet to retract the tweet or acknowledge the detractors to her views. This is also not the first time that Midler has been criticized for a racially charged remark. She was blasted last year after a controversial (and now deleted) tweet, “women, are the n-word of the world” got her in trouble.
She continued: “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 They are the most disrespected creatures on earth.”
Midler deleted that tweet and offered up an apology. “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,” she wrote. “I am an ally and stand with you; always have. And I apologize.”
