Samantha Bee’s and Roseanne Barr’s behaviors are not vaguely analogous. Those decrying the handling of Samantha Bee, as far as a double standard, are using a faulty comparison between Bee and Barr. While Samantha Bee definitely used a highly offensive and vulgar word to describe Ivanka Trump, the two episodes are not similar at all.
1) Samantha Bee was describing one person, Ivanka Trump, an extremely wealthy and privileged person who is in a position to influence U.S. policy. Roseanne Barr was describing an entire religious group (Muslims) and a race of people (African-Americans) in purely racist terms.
2) Samantha Bee was raising the issue that border agents are systematically separating children from their parents, a legitimate subject of humanitarian concern to many Americans, including many conservatives. Roseanne Barr, on the other hand, was trying to crack a crude joke that relied on portraying a past Democratic political adviser as a radical Muslim and an ape.
And let’s not forget that Ted Nugent has used the exact same epithet about Hillary Clinton that Samantha Bee used about Ivanka Trump, but instead of his being derided by the alt right, it earned him a photo op with Donald Trump in the Oval Office.
Richard McWilliams
Yarmouth
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