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‘Straight Outta Compton’ Actor Jason Mitchell Defends Roseanne, Gets Blasted Then Backtracks

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It’s safe to say that Jason Mitchell’s career has been on an upward trajectory since wowing critics as Eazy-E in the N.W.A. biopic “Straight Outta Compton.”

Since then, he’s landed a handful of high profile roles in releases like “Mudbound,” “Detroit” and Showtime’s “The Chi,” and it doesn’t look like he’s slowing down any time soon.

But as it’s been proven many times before, one’s upward trajectory can quickly turn into a nosedive if he or she says the wrong thing. 

Thankfully for Mitchell, that hasn’t happened to him yet, but he did anger a lot of people when he stuck up for Roseanne Barr at the BET Awards on Sunday (June 24).

He did it when Entertainment Tonight host Nischelle Turner told him about ABC’s new show “The Conners,” which will replace the now cancelled “Rosanne” that was taken off the air after Barr sent a racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett.

“I think it’s tough that society has come to a place where like, we can’t even take a joke anymore, you know what I mean?” said Mitchell. “Like I grew up on ‘Roseanne’ and I don’t see no wrong on ‘Roseanne.’ She’s a comedian. I mean, if we can’t take a joke, you know what I mean?”

“I want us to all get along,” he added. “I think we should all be able to coexist and in the meantime, I’ll be able to joke about it because it’s funny.”

Of course, it wasn’t long until people let the 31-year-old have it.

“Wow, a Black man defending racist behavior of Roseanne or any other racist that spews hate is really pathetic,” one person wrote. “Jason Mitchell owes Black folk an apology for his ignorant stance on what racism is.”

“He just committed career suicide,” someone else tweeted.

Eventually, Mitchell responded to the backlash and clarified his comments about Barr’s tweet being a joke. The “Mudbound” actor also admitted that he didn’t know about her tweet until being asked about it.

“Regarding Roseanne, I’ll admit, I really wasn’t familiar with the tweet the interviewer was referring to when she asked me,” he wrote. “After reading it, it’s clear that what Roseanne said was wrong, even if she was joking, there is nothing funny. I am happy for the cast and crew whose livelihoods were affected by her offensive tweet to have jobs again on “The Conners” spinoff.”

Meanwhile, Jerry Seinfeld has weighed in on the Roseanne controversy and he thinks ABC shouldn’t have let her go.

“I didn’t see why it was necessary to fire her,” he said. “Why would you murder someone who’s committing suicide.”

Another option for the network, according to Seinfeld, was to keep the “Roseanne” reboot and just replace Barr.

“I think they should get another Roseanne,” he explained. “They brought [John Goodman’s character] Dan Conner back, he was dead and they brought him back. So, why can’t we get another Roseanne? There’s other funny women that could do that part. You need to get the comic in there. I hate to see a comic lose a job.”

You can see some of the comments regarding Mitchell’s tweet below.

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