Stay Connected
Atlanta Black Star/Entertainment
Entertainment

Bill Maher’s Reaction to Ice Cube’s Critique Does Not Fly with Viewers

Posted byBy Tracy | Published on: | Updated on June 12, 2017 CommentsComments (0)

Bill Maher was the center of attention on the Friday night broadcast of “Real Time with Bill Maher.” The political commentator and comedian could not avoid addressing his reference to a being a “house n—–” during a conversation with Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) last week. The comment spurred numerous negative comments, including Chicago rapper Chance the Rapper calling on HBO to drop Maher’s show.

Maher did have his supporters like scholar Michael Eric Dyson, who replaced Sen. Al Franken after he backed out following the controversy. Dyson provided some lessons for Maher but handled the comedian with kid gloves. Ice Cube, who was already scheduled to appear to promote his album, insisted he would confront Maher about his use of the derogatory term. And confront him he did. Cube spent over two minutes explaining to a seemingly uninterested Maher about the pain behind the word.

“A word is a weapon or a tool, and that word has been used as a weapon byy white people” Ice Cube said. “That’s our word now and you can’t have it back.”

Maher apologized a few times in the segment, seemingly recognizing and acknowledging the hurt he caused “For black folks, that word — I don’t care who you are — has caused pain,” he said. “I’m not here to do that. … It doesn’t matter that it wasn’t said in malice; it wasn’t. It brought back pain to people.”

However, his defensive posturing to Ice Cube’s comment was not lost on viewers, who quickly called him out.

https://twitter.com/kanduatgawker/status/873595484887105536

Symone Sanders, a Democratic strategist and former press secretary for Sen. Bernie Sanders, joined in to bring a “little perspective” …

https://twitter.com/SymoneDSanders/status/873561067103936513

… but viewers still weren’t convinced Maher got the point.

Still independent.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Give once Give monthly Support another way

Related Stories

Back to top