‘Someone Get This Jiggaboo’: Fans Give Terry Crews the Side-Eye After He Tweets About Being Uninvited to the Cookout

Terry Crews stirred the controversial pot once again with the Black community via Twitter on Wednesday, Sept. 1, by discussing his beliefs surrounding his invitation to the cookout.

The cookout is a metaphorical gathering to those solely based in the Black community. Although it is unclear what prompted the 53-year-old to address being uninvited to the “cookout,” that didn’t stop him from making a bold statement.

Terry Crews opens up about being uninvited to the cookout in new tweet. Photo:terrycrews/Instagram

Crews said in a tweet, “The best thing about being uninvited to the cookout… Is you never drank the koolaid.” While this post may seem innocent at first, the coin termed “drinking the Kool-Aid” means to adopt to a group’s teaching without fully understanding the end result.

The initial term to describe those having a cult-life mentality reportedly originated with the 1978 Jonestown Massacre. The mass murder-suicide of more than 900 people led by the Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ leader Reverend Jim Jones occurred after individuals consumed a cyanide and valium laced Flavor Aid drink, a cheaper alternative to the Kool-Aid brand.

As Crews’ tweet became viral on social media, many people called him out by referencing the film “White Chicks.” The actor, who played alongside Marlon and Shawn Wayans, portrayed a character named Latrell Spencer, a wealthy black man who prefers to be with a white woman. A couple of the film’s fans even recited lines from the hit 2004 movie.

“Negro please- Latrell Spencer.”

“🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽He’s still in his white chicks character😂 don’t mind him.”

“Starting to think his role in White Chicks wasn’t acting…“

“Someone get this jiggaboo😂.”

This isn’t the first time Crews has been under fire with the Black community. Last year, the “America’s Got Talent” host appeared on Roland Martin’s daily web show “Unfiltered” to discuss the backlash he received for a Black Lives Matter tweet. The initial post read, “If you are a child of God, you are my brother and sister. I have family of every race, creed and ideology. We must ensure #blacklivesmatter doesn’t morph into #blacklivesbetter.”

He said, while bringing up Adam Venit, a Hollywood agent whom Crews alleged groped him at a 2016 party, “I love my people so much that I’m willing to risk it all. Everybody loves to say that he’s trying to please the white man. I took on Hollywood by myself two years ago…I spent a half a million dollars of my money. I’m still waiting for them checks from anybody else who said they supported me because they didn’t.”

Crews added, “I’ve risked it all once before. I’d do it all again. I’ve been canceled for everything under the sun. I’ve been canceled for going to China by white men. I’ve been canceled by the LBGTQ community for talking about fatherhood. … This is the new day and era. You are going to be canceled.”

Democracy needs journalism it can trust.

This election season, the stakes are higher than usual — and so is the pressure on newsrooms to soften their coverage, stay quiet, or just disappear. Independent reporting, the kind that answers to readers instead of advertisers or political pressure, matters more in a moment like this, not less.

For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed independent and reader-funded. We have no corporate owner and no shareholders telling us what to cover or how to cover it. That independence is also our biggest vulnerability: nothing protects it except readers choosing to fund it directly.

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 in a moment like this, it's rarely the independent, reader-funded ones 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.

Back to top