Terry Crews Sparked A Backlash With A Tweet About ‘Black Supremacy,’ And His Attempt To Explain It Only Made Things Worse

Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Terry Crews recently found a warm reception on Twitter after his remarks on the death of George Floyd (for which Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder). That thread began with Crews stating that Floyd’s death “forced me to search my heart to find out what more I can do, as a human being, as a citizen, and more specifically as a Black man,” which led to a declaration that he wanted to “make further amends to black women.” A few days later, Crews is feeling an intense backlash after a “Black supremacy” tweet amid another weekend of protests against police brutality. It’s a swift turn of events that’s been compounded by Crews’ attempt to explain his perspective. In the process, he created a bigger mess.

“Defeating White supremacy without White people creates Black supremacy,” Crews tweeted on Sunday. “Equality is the truth. Like it or not, we are all in this together.”

As one can imagine, this didn’t go over well (his wording suggested a warning against something, “Black supremacy,” which does not exist), and Crews’ name trended for several hours in a way that no one should be thrilled to be mentioned. At the forefront of responses was Tyler James Williams, his former TV son on Everybody Hates Chris.

“[W]e’re rightfully angry right now and fed up with anyone not with our cause wholeheartedly,” Williams explained after an expression of love. “I don’t want to see that energy pointed your way or diverted from the cause.”

https://twitter.com/TylerJamesWill/status/1269801883679387648

Crews responded that “I was not saying Black supremacy exists, because it doesn’t.” And he continued: “I am saying if both Black and Whites don’t continue to work together– bad attitudes and resentments can create a dangerous self-righteousness.”

The responses to that reply grew heated with some pointing out that Crews’ initial choice of words had left a lot to be desired. Others accused him of “gaslighting,” but again, it was mostly noted that Crews had clumsily called for people to work together, and “that was already happening.” His language, argued another user, “play[ed] into the white supremacist narrative of being ‘concerned’ about the protests.”

https://twitter.com/dhounshe1/status/1269824168985538561

At that point, Crews probably should have stopped tweeting, but that didn’t happen. He further tweeted about “gatekeepers of Blackness” and doubled down: “Any Black person who calls me a coon or and Uncle Tom for promoting EQUALITY is a Black Supremist, because they have determined who’s Black and who is not.”