Terry Crews Facing Backlash Over Latest Black Lives Matter Tweet
Brooklyn Nine-Nine star and America's Got Talent host Terry Crews is facing backlash online after a recent tweet commenting on the Black Lives Matter movement and suggesting that black lives should not be exalted over all other lives.
Crews tweeted, "If you are a child of God, you are my brother and sister. I have family of every race, creed and ideology. We must ensure #blacklivesmatter doesn’t morph into #blacklivesbetter."
A majority of the backlash comes from the final sentence of the tweet, with some stating that Crews was undermining the movement and that no one had been suggesting that black lives be held above all others.
Among those speaking out were Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s daughter Bernice King, actress Holly Robinson Peete and comedienne Amanda Seales among others. Read a few of the responses below:
Crews did receive some support for his comments in the tweets as well, as seen below:
This marks the second time in 2020 that Crews has faced criticism concerning the issue of race. Back in January, he received some heat for invalidating Gabrielle Union's claims of racism on the set of America's Got Talent during an appearance on NBC's Today Show.
"I can't speak for sexism because I'm not a woman, but I can speak on any racism comments," Crews said at the time. "That was never my experience. In fact, it was the most diverse place I have ever been in my 20 years of entertainment."
He later received criticism online, but offered up a personal apology to Union on Twitter. "I told Kevin Hart a while ago, he needed 2 'acknowledge the pain of other people.' Right now I have to do the same thing. I want to apologize for the comments I made," started Crews. "I hear you, I respect you and understand you. I am sorry and I am here to support you. I spoke from my own personal point of view without first taking into consideration someone else’s experience. I allowed disrespectful comments directed at me and my family to cause me to react angrily instead of responding thoughtfully. This certainly caused more harm, and it is my hope that I can amend any pain I have caused to those who were hurt by my words."
He continued, "I realize there are a lot of Black women hurt and let down by what I said and also by what I didn’t say. @itsgabrielleu, I want you to know it was never my intention to invalidate your experience— but that is what I did. I apologize. You have been through a lot in this business, and with that I empathize with the struggle toward fairness and equality in the workplace."
"@itsgabrielleu You are a role model to the entire black community and In my desire to be professionally neutral as your co-worker, I should have at the very least understood you just needed my support," concluded Crews in his apology to Union.
In addition to Brooklyn Nine-Nine and America's Got Talent, Crews' credits includes TV's Everyone Hates Chris and the films The Expendables, Idiocracy and White Chicks.
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