Liberal comedian Chelsea Handler and other celebrities have recently taken some serious heat for her praise of a “powerful” speech made by the Jew-hating Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
As a result, Handler attended an interview in which she again sang the praises of the anti-Semitic activist -- before apologizing in a subsequent statement made after an appearance on the Daily Beast’s The Last Laugh podcast.
According to an article posted on Tuesday, June 23, by Charlie Nash, a reporter for Mediaite, stated:
Handler and a group of other celebrities faced backlash last week for sharing the “powerful” Farrakhan speech on Instagram,
I thought his message was really powerful.. … I wasn’t thinking about the anti-Semitic thing, but I don’t want to take down the thing because I felt the message was powerful.
“A lot of people” agreed, and “it was powerful for me the way he spelled it out, that black people don’t have a history of killing white people.” “White people have a history of killing black people for hundreds of years,” Handler stated.
“Forget about crime. Over and over again, we kill black people in this country,” she added. “So everyone needs to like remember where the violence came from,” the comedian continued. “It’s not from the black people, it’s from the white people.” “I thought it was powerful,” she stated. “So whatever, you know, everybody can go f**k themselves,” Handler concluded.
However, Nash said, the comedian later made an unexpected move. “Handler reached out to the Daily Beast’s podcast team with an apology (and deleted the Instagram post.)”
The message stated:
I want to sincerely apologize for posting the video of Louis Farrakhan. I didn’t consider the context of his anti-Semitic and homophobic rhetoric that is of course contrary to my own beliefs and values.
Part of the process of educating ourselves during this pivotal time is recognizing and working through our mistakes. This was definitely one of mine. I was wrong. It was offensive, and I apologize.”
As NewsBusters reported on June 16, this wasn’t the first time Handler touted the Jew-hating Farrakhan.
“According to her recent Instagram activity,” the comedian “has been posting and sharing videos of infamous black supremacist and virulent anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, the political and religious leader of radical spiritual group The Nation of Islam, in an attempt to educate folks on “white guilt” and the grievances of African Americans.
She also noted:
On Monday, Handler posted a video to her Instagram page of Farrakhan taking questions on race relations from a talk show host audience.
During the video, which appears to be from the late ‘80s or early ‘90s, Farrakhan tried to persuade the audience that tensions white people may be feeling in their relationships with African-Americans may come from “400 years” of their collective “white guilt.”
Meanwhile, the Nation of Islam is listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group, and the SPLC claims its leaders promote a “deeply racist, anti-Semitic and anti-LGBT rhetoric.”
