Roseanne Barr Disputes Racist Claims: ‘I Reject What You Call Me’

Throughout Roseanne Barr’s interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News Thursday, Barr said she is not racist and rejected anyone who said she is.

“I’m a creative genius and this is not a good feeling for a good feeling for an artist to be treated this way,” Barr told Hannity. “And it’s not a good feeling for a citizen anyway. Here’s who I am. I’m someone who cares about civil rights. I reject what you call me. You call me a racist, I don’t accept it. I know who I am and I’m not a racist.”

Barr also said she did not think the people who voted for President Donald Trump and Trump himself are racist, “but we just have a different opinion.”

“We all want the same thing though,” Barr continued. “We want people in the inner cities that are living in feces — and I’m talking about my son, he goes to school in San Francisco and I go up there — I don’t just blab and run my mouth. I live my beliefs. I want people to know that. I live my beliefs. I try and of course I fail, but of course I try. And I get back up and try again.”

Earlier in the interview, Barr said she “was so sad” that people think she is racist, adding, “I’m not that person.”

ABC fired Barr in May after she tweeted that Valerie Jarrett, an aide to former President Barack Obama who was born in Iran, looked like the offspring of the Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes characters. A month after cancelling Roseanne, ABC ordered a spin-off called The Conners, featuring Barr’s co-stars.

Although many felt the tweet was racist, Barr insisted it was a “political” message.

“The first thing was shock that they were saying it was racial when it’s political. That was a hard one to take,” Barr said of the reaction to the tweet. “And then everyone started saying I was a racist, which is like the worst thing you can call a Jewish person, especially someone like me, who grew up with Holocaust survivors.”

She continued, “Because of that fact, I took a vow to my religion to my god that I would always fight extremism on either side, right or left. For a long time, I thought I was fighting the right by being really left and then I slowly woke up and both extremes are not where my values are. My values are in the middle.”

Barr also apologized to Jarrett, saying she “never meant” to hurt her or anyone else with the tweet.

“I’m sorry that you feel harmed and hurt,” Barr said. “I never meant that and for that, I apologize. I never meant to hurt anybody or say anything negative about an entire race of people, which I think 30 years of my work can attest to.”

Barr also claimed her contract with ABC gave her a 24-hour window to correct any mistakes she might make on Twitter. She claimed she wanted to appear on The View or other ABC shows to explain herself but was not allowed to do so. When she was asked about The Connors, she allowed it to be greenlit without a fuss as part of her “recompense” so her former staff would not be without jobs.

The Conners debuts on Oct. 16 on ABC.

Photo credit: Fox News