TWO YEARS AGO, during a stand up routine, comedian Amy Schumer made this joke on stage:
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The line was tweeted out yesterday by the writer @FeministaJones and gained a lot of attention online.
Twitter user Martine Joelle tagged Amy Schumer in her retweet – one of hundreds - and asked her this question:
Schumer got back to her almost immediately with this response
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Her response in full read:
Thank you so much for asking. I wrote this joke 2 years ago. I used to do a lot of short dumb jokes like this. I played a dumb white girl character on stage. I still do sometimes. Once I realized I had more eyes and ears on me and had an influence I stopped telling jokes like that on stage. I am evolving as an artist. I am taking responsibility and hope I haven’t hurt anyone. And I apologize it I did. Thanks again for asking.
The Twitter exchange and apology came a couple of hours after this Washington Post opinion piece was published – which was being shared widely.
Schumer’s apology, though, was well received by the woman that asked the original question
With some people saying that The Washington Post piece went too far
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But mostly Schumer gained respect for admitting that comedy is indeed a powerful tool
Schumer also tweeted this longer explanation out at the end of June addressing what some people were calling her “blind spot” when it comes to race in her comedy:
