Grey’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo caused quite the controversy on Twitter Friday night. Since Pompeo has always been open about supporting the Black Lives Matter Movement and discussing systematic racism in general, it was a bit surprising to see her claiming that she has experienced racism as white person. It all started when a Grey’s fan (whose account is now private) noticed that Pompeo often used emojis with a black skin tone instead of her own. She said it looked obnoxious since the emojis with various skin tones were released in order to be more inclusive to people of color and create some sort of representation.
The actress responded to these tweets, claiming that she does it because “racism isn’t just a black problem,” not attempting to understand where this fan was coming from. She went on to say that racism is on both sides which implies she believes in reverse racism because she gets called a “white bitch” online daily. Half of her fans were on her side since they thought she was being “attacked” over emojis, while the other half tried to explicate that her previous statements proved it was so much more than that.
Ummm I’ve been called a white bitch and countless other things 50000 times today what would you call it? https://t.co/b1EShx42VY
— Ellen Pompeo (@EllenPompeo) December 23, 2016
Don’t be a hater I do it because racism is not just a black problem it is all of our problem get it??? https://t.co/GehrNAHIOa
— Ellen Pompeo (@EllenPompeo) December 23, 2016
Pompeo additionally indicated that since she is a white woman with a black husband and kids, she is a “target for racist white people,” which is basically pulling the “I have black friends so I can say anything” card. When activists attempted to see where she was coming from and try to educate her more on the issue, Pompeo thought people were just trying to pick fights.
I believe that Pompeo has good intentions and honestly thinks that she is being helpful, but it’s clear that she needs to do a better job of actually listening to people who experience racism rather then get defensive. Racism is an extremely important and relevant topic that everybody should discuss, since ignoring the issue does a lot more harm than good. This helps expose people to points that they’ve never thought about before, clearing up misinformation one mind at a time. She thinks people were trying to tell her she can’t talk about race, which isn’t true if you’ve seen the tweets she has replied to. Pompeo apologized if her tweets offended anyone, but not for the tweets themselves.
It’s sad to see someone who has been helpful in the past act pretty problematic, but all we can do is hope that she ultimately sees what POC are trying to say.
