Bette Midler issued an apology after widespread criticism for firing off a controversial tweet on Thursday saying, “women, are the n-word of the world,” USA Today reported.
The post, which was deleted three hours later, might have been intended to highlight gender inequality but instead demonstrated “lack of knowledge on issues of race and concept of intersectionality,” said a tweet by Rosa Clemente, a Green Party candidate during the 2008 election.
In her original post, Midler 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,” according to USA Today.
She issued an apology shortly after deleting the tweet in an attempt to explain herself.
“The too brief investigation of allegations against Kavanaugh infuriated me,” Midler posted. “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. I am an ally and stand with you; always have. And I apologize.”
The backlash was massive, with more than 8,000 comments posted before it was deleted, USA Today noted.
“I am 100% a feminist but this is quite is awful. It erases the struggles of black women in particular,” one Twitter user posted.
Another Twitter user called Midler’s post “disappointing,” adding that women are highly disrespected but this should not “displace the atrocities that were done to black people by using that quote.”
Midler responded with another tweet, which has also been deleted, noting that her original post was offensive but she never intended for it to be about race.
“'Women are the...etc' is a quote from Yoko Ono from 1972, which I never forgot,” she said, according to USA Today. “It rang true then, and it rings true today, whether you like it or not. This is not about race, this is about the status of women."
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