Actor Terry Crews made a tweet Tuesday that caused a lot of backlash – in addition to what he was already getting.
What We Know:
- Tuesday morning, Crews tweeted an acronym for the slur ‘coon’.
CONQUER
OUR
OWN
NEGATIVITY— terry crews (@terrycrews) July 28, 2020
- The word is an offensive racial slur derived from the word ‘raccoon’ and is believed to be rooted in the racist act of Blackface. However, within the Black community, the term is used to refer to Black people that put down their own communities in favor of “the White man”. It is often used synonymously with the slur “Uncle Tom” – a reference to a subservient Black man from the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
- The term was used to describe Crews after he made a tweet in early June stating, “Defeating White supremacy without White people creates Black supremacy. Equality is the truth. Like it or not, we are all in this together.” He received a ton of pushback for this statement and engaged in many television and radio interviews to defend himself. He also took to Twitter:
I believe it is important we not suffer from groupthink, and we keep minds of our own, and be allowed to ask difficult questions to each other. I believe this dialogue is important as we get through this trauma together. I love you.
— terry crews (@terrycrews) June 8, 2020
- For his Tuesday tweet, Crews received just as much criticism:
Dear Mr. Crews, you can make lemonade and bring people along with you — or, you can squeeze the juice in their eyes and tell them to make lemonade with their tears…which is what it sounds like you are doing.
— Josh Courteau (nerd) (@thesciencerules) July 28, 2020
- On The Breakfast Club, Charlamagne Tha God named him “Donkey of the Day” saying, “Terry Crews has become the poster child for coons in 2020.” In his coverage of the tweet, Charlamagne ultimately had this to say, “My question is simply: who are you trying to convince [that you are not a coon]?” He went on to state, “If you believe what you’re saying is true… stand on your word and stop trying to convince people you are not a coon because these brothers and sisters that’s out there on the front lines fighting for justice for people that have the same skin color as you, in spite of you, don’t care [about] what you’re talking about because they’re busy doing the work.” He even suggested that Crews try leading with actions rather than words and “lip service”.
The Brooklyn Nine-Nine actor continues to defend his ideals of “Black gatekeepers” and the community adopting a sense of supremacy that will ultimately be a detriment to the call for equality.
