The Roseanne Barr Scandal
Mistakes happen typically; people have to apologize at some point in their lives. The mistakes public figures make can cause public outrage, for instance, the 2018 Roseanne Barr Scandal. On Tuesday, May 30, 2018, in the early hours of the morning, comedian Roseanne Barr went to Twitter and disseminated a series of racist tweets attacking Valerie Jarrett, an African American woman from the Obama Administration. Barr specified that “If Muslim Brotherhood & Planet of the Apes had a baby = Valerie Jarrett” (Koblin, 2018). Additionally, Barr falsely accused Chelsea Clinton was related to Billionaire George Soros.
Additionally, when the scandal started to gain traction, Barr conveyed that the cause of her behavior was the lack of sleep and taking the drug called Ambien. From this scandal, a communication practitioner will be called upon to repair the relationship of Barr’s stakeholders. Reputation repair can be achieved by crafting an apology that conveys what corrective action steps to rectify any negative results of the crisis, and rebuilding good relationships and trust after this crisis requires deliberate and sincere actions (Lukaszewski, 2015). Since the crisis event started on Twitter, it would be befitting to lead the apology on Twitter and add a hyperlink to the tweet to a full disclosure video for the remainder of the apology.
Tweet
I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and everyone that was affected by my tasteless comment. I deeply regretfully of my horrible joke about Jarrett’s politics and physical appearance, I should’ve known better, please forgive me. (link to full Apology video on Roseanne Barr’s Website)
Barr Apology Video
[Video Fades In and Barr Appears]
This video intends to start a dialogue in service of taking responsibility for the horrendous comment that I made about Valerie Jarrett’s appearance, accusing Chelsea Clinton of being related to George Soros and then blaming my heinous behavior on taking Ambient medication.
To Valerie Jarrett, Chelsea Clinton, ABC, Ambient, colleagues, fans, family, supporters, and everyone that was affected by my actions, I am deeply sorry. Through my actions, I have lost your trust and faith in me, and I should have known better. Just because I am a comedian doesn’t give me the right to say what I want and hide under the First Amendment.
Upon reflection of myself and learning from this situation with the help of my husband, my family, and professionals to help me understand the person that I am, I have a lot of growing up to do. I am grappling with myself concerning why I behave the way I have it’s out of fear, stress, insecurity, and ignorance these are the things I am working on right now. From this grievance situation, I have dedicated myself to spiritual self-discovery to be the best person that I can be by implementing mindfulness techniques and cultural awareness. By applying these two methods within my daily practices will help change my beliefs, attitude, and behavior to move forward towards positive change. From this moment onward I want to become a positive person that enforces love, responsibility, compassion, and forgiveness to help facilitate social change and make a better world. I hope someday we can come together and hopefully you’ll be able to forgive me and what I have done, but I know it first starts with me taking full responsibility of my actions and modifying my behavior, for us to start the forgiveness and healing process conjointly.