NEWSRoseanne Barr Unapologetic for 2018 Racist Tweet: 'God Made Me Do It'
Roseanne Barr defended her 2018 tweet, which caused her show to get canceled.
June 15 2025, Published 4:22 p.m. ET
Roseanne Barr got candid about the 2018 tweet that sparked outrage and led to her show getting canceled.
In 2018, Barr tweeted about Valerie Jarrett, a former senior advisor to former president Barack Obama, which critics described as racist after she compared Jarrett to a character from the film Planet of the Apes.
In an interview, Barr claimed: "God made me do it."
"The way I feel about it is that God told me to do what I did, and it was a nuclear bomb," Barr told Variety in an interview published on June 6. "The day of my tweet, over 2 million Americans googled Valerie Jarrett and the Iran deal. And that was my intent. So, whatever."
Roseanne Barr claimed she was unaware of Valerie Jarrett’s race.
Barr recalled the events during the interview: "I had my laptop there in bed, as always, and I opened it, and there was [a post with] a picture of Valerie Jarrett next to Helena Bonham Carter in full makeup as Ari in Planet of the Apes, and they looked like Xerox copies of each other, so I captioned it."
The veteran comedian remained unapologetic and called her caption as "perfect" despite the backlash she received. She also emphasized that she was unaware of Jarrett's African-American heritage at the time.
Critics condemned Roseanne Barr’s 2018 tweet about Valerie Jarrett and called it 'racist.'
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"Everybody knows I would never ever cast a slur against anyone. I was not aware of her race," the actress asserted. "Other people were so racist that they thought my tweet said Black people look like monkeys when it was about Planet of the Apes, which is a movie about fascism."
Industry experts believe Barr's comments may spark renewed debate over holding public figures accountable for racially insensitive behavior.
The TV show's cancelation significantly impacted Roseanne Barr’s career.
Following the uproar, ABC canceled her hit show Roseanne, a decision which heavily impacted the actress's career.
Barr claimed that the Planet of the Apes narrative is not racial in nature. "Rod Serling [Planet of the Apes screenwriter] himself said it's about the Jews in Germany. It is not a movie about Black people," she said.
Roseanne Barr insisted the ‘Planet of the Apes’ reference was not racial.
Critics, however, argue that her insistence on this narrative erases the historical context and implications of her original tweet.
"It's essential for public figures to understand the weight their words carry," remarked a cultural critic, who wished to remain anonymous. "We are no longer in an era where people can simply shrug off the impact of their comments."
