Singing legend Bette Midler has put her foot in it with a tweet referencing the 'n-word', in expressing sympathy for the struggles of women worldwide.
“Women, are the n-word of the world.” 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," Midler tweeted.
The tweet, referencing the song "Woman Is the N- of the World" written by John Lennon and Yoko Ono from their 1972 album Some Time in New York City, didn't go down well.
One user said the 1972 quote did not jar with sensibilities of 2018: "It's time to retire that quote. It minimises racism and is counterproductive to intersectional feminism. The shock value is in NO WAY worth the harm to Black people."
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Others were more pointed, saying the tweet highlighted the racial tone-deafness of baby boomer white feminist women. "Also absolves WW (white women) from their complicity," one user tweeted.
New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones was not having any of it.
"1) You can’t use the word n-. Just no. 2) What the HELL are black women then? You know, the ones who were actually enslaved?? Lord, time to log all the way off of Twitter," she tweeted.
"Naw. Just naw. I don’t even have anything smart or searing to say to this except — GET YOURSELF TOGETHER."
Robert Pierre writing in the Washington Post said the n-word was a racial epithet and slur that had deeply painful connotations for black people.
"The word is weighty and powerful and harkens back to a time when whites could do whatever they wanted to black people—call them any name, beat them, rape them and even kill them with impunity," he wrote.
Earlier this year, Australian talkback radio personality Alan Jones came under fire for using the term in a broadcast. He later apologised for the comment.
