The last time we talked about Melissa Joan Hart was in early 2019 when she was defending teaching her son that Jewish people go to hell. When people called her antisemitic she said she was misunderstood and basically proved that she’s antisemitic. So it’s not surprising to hear that she’s racist too. On Monday, Melissa posted the Instagram above [via Daily Mail], of Shirley Temple dancing with Bojangles in the 1935 movie The Little Colonel, as evidence of white people being gracious to black people or something, I think her point was that it would be great to go back to that time when white people were gatekeepers. She was inspired by a post that Danica McKellar did on Mr. Rogers washing his feet in a pool with a black cop in 1969 as a form of protest against segregated swimming pools. Danica’s post was definitely tone deaf at this time, but Melissa’s was ten times worse. A screenshot is above and here’s what she wrote.
The post of #MrRogers by danicamckellar reminded me of one of my favorite #ShirleyTemple movies #TheLittleColonel because of the history of the #Stairdance she did with the incredible #BillyBojanglesRobinson. When studying the life of Shirley I learned that it was the first time an interracial couple danced on screen together. Bojangles wasn’t allowed to hold her hand but Shirley grabbed his anyhow during the dance and it made history. She also gives him full credit for making her a better dancer, as did Gene Kelly. #spreadlove Ps this post was purely meant to show friendship!
Melissa deleted this but of course she didn’t issue a statement about it. As of publication, she still has her tweet up pointing to the Instagram that’s now deleted. The Twitter responses say it the best. This is offensive, tone deaf and just awful. Bojangles was playing a servant on a plantation and the seven year old girl had more rights than he did. Plus Shirley Temple was a child! They were not an “interracial couple” because she deigned to hold his hand while they were doing a performance. Melissa also defended herself because of course she did. She basically repeated her claim that this shows friendship and said it doesn’t matter that it’s on a plantation:
“Friendship and breaking barriers” because we should let the black people who perform and do services for us also hold our hands when they’re playing backup characters in movies. White people can save the day when they pick who to befriend. She’s the worst. She was already canceled, I just wanted to complain about her.
Thanks Rhiannon and everyone at the Zoom meeting for the idea to cover this!
“interracial couple”??? Ma’am, that is a child. Is this supposed to be a feel good story? pic.twitter.com/rbxNdfHE9O
— gritty pablo (@navyplush) June 2, 2020
Thank you for showing everyone who I alwaysknew you to be. 😂
— Angry Lady (@am_geeky) June 2, 2020
Clarissa… you have lost your mind smh.
— Diana Townsend (@poetrytealove) June 2, 2020
— G. Barton-Sinkia🍁 (@gbartonsinkia) June 2, 2020
So, Clarissa CAN’T, in fact, explain it all. Because she doesn’t understand shit.
I guess this episode of “ I’m white, I’m woke” is a bust! But, what did that tweet about “showing everyone who I know you to be” mean? 🤔 This deserves some more investigating . 😂
Excuse my ignorance who is Clarisa?
It’s a Nickelodeon series she acted in as the titular character.
😅
……yeah I’ve got nothing. The stupidity and wrongness of this has broken my brain.
If I was her publicist I wouldn’t just drop her, I’d go into witness protection to escape her.
The ignorance is mind blowing. Also can people stop with the stupid posts of Mr. Rogers and anything cutesy implying all it takes is love? And that love wins over hate? It is derivative. It is oversimplified. It’s okay to teach this to children, but all I see are grown white women using these tactics and honestly not realizing how surface-level they are staying in this discussion.
One of my friend posted that Mr Rogers meme on FB and I couldn’t help but point out how wrong it is to mention “Mr Rogers and the black police”. That character had a name: Officer Clemmons and was played by François Clemmons, a university-trained actor. As good as Mr Rogers was, POC don’t need to be used as props to show how nice the White man is, they deserve to be named and get equal recognition. Everyone in the Neighborhood was someone and had a name and it was done on purpose, it sucks that adults can’t seem to figure this out… That conversation did not go well
Yes and this is the same actor who Rogers encouraged to stay in the closet otherwise he’d have to fire him. People, Straight cis white ppl especially (like me), need to stop with this picture for sooooooo many reasons!!
There’s a great term for “showing how nice the White man is”: “Atticusing”.
That’s a good point, Mr. Rogers was teaching children. These grown women need to put away their childish things now.
It’s also just not relevant anymore. Maybe it was groundbreaking to dip feet with a Black man during the time of segregation, but if that is STILL where your mind and understanding is at then there is a serious problem somewhere.
That’s what I have been thinking too. I was born in the late 70’s and grew up watching Mr. Rogers. I lived in a VERY small white community in Northern Wisconsin. Sure, this was great for me to see as a small child but I’m in my 40’s now. As adults I think we should be searching for something deeper and more meaningful than examples used to teach elementary aged children 40 + years ago. If that’s your ‘go-to’ response then I assume that’s where you are mentally with all of this, still back in the 70’s with that type of mentality.
This doesn’t surprise me after her starring and promoting that fundamentalist movie portraying secular America as persecuting the for their religious beliefs
THIS is the best thing I’ve read so far today. Thank you
Absolutely no excuse for this ignorance. She should issue a proper apology and pick up some damn books
Godawful bloody woman. She’s been cancelled for a long time. Someone needs to take away her tweeting thumb. God only knows how that kid is going to grow up.
Melissa Joan Hart is a trash heap. This is the same fool who campaigned for no nothing third party candidate Gary Johnson.
She’s a jerk and a hypocrite.
These a$$hole really are f-cking up our childhood memories. I feel like literally every white celeb I grew up watching has turned out to be a racist twat.
I don’t know much about her personally but I think what she was trying to say (and it took me awhile to figure it out so she did a poor job) was that even during segregation there were white people willing to stand up for black people and make a statement of unity. I think that’s what she meant. I’m not sure if that’s what she meant but it’s the only explanation I could piece together, also taking the Mr Rogers post into account and her comment.
This would have still been an awkward message if not accompanied with something to tie it to today’s issues. Something to call for other white people to stand up for what is right, even if it goes against the social norms of your peers.
Sure, that could be true. If she could dig a little deeper she might realize how the whole post focused on a white actress she idolized and she might actually consider reframing it to be about Bill Robinson or showcasing any other black actor. She might think about what point she is trying to make and how it relates to the current movement to end police violence against black people. To me, this just feels like a very surface level – hey let’s all be friends quit being angry everyone kind of message and does absolutely nothing to further a meaningful conversation.
A lot of white people really racing in to show their ass. Isn’t that something.
She’s trash. Also.. weird fact I just remembered: she has been creepily obsessed with Shirley Temple her whole life. I think i became aware of it on MTV Cribs ages ago. She has a huge personal collection of ST collectibles, dolls, and merchandise. I think she even produced a bio pic on Shirley.
Wow, I had no idea that she’s such a garbage person. I loved Sabrina, the teenage witch as a kid, but I didn’t really know anything about her.
😐
Ignorance can be taught. She’s stupid. I mean come on…wtf? What holy f”ckery prompted her post? Maybe she wanted to find out how many people of different race, gender and age she could offend. Maybe she lost a bet. Why is she identifying with Shirley f”cking Temple being in a film with a black man as proof of something? Proof of what? This woman has rattled my brain.
No surprise on this. She is very politically and socially conservative and I have always wondered if what she puts out publicly are watered-down versions of the types of more broadly problematic, antiquated views she and her husband espouse in private. (I suspect this about Chris Pratt as well.)
Oh Chris Pratt. How has Chris Pratt not shown his ass through all this, yet?
Too busy doing pregnancy pap strolls with his wife and ensuring she stays in her God-allotted space 😉 (Sorry, not a fan of their in-your-face religious views. She just seems vapid and completely rudderless in life.)
I can’t stand her, she’s been rumored to be a horrible person for years, but can we not joke on her physical appearance? My daughter has a strabismus that looks similar to Melissa’s, she’s very self conscious about it, so that comment tugged at me a bit.
I agree – she has repeatedly shown herself to be a terrible person, there’s PLENTY to criticize her on, let’s not pick on something genetic and/or physical.
I didn’t like that either. So if a physically “perfect” person is garbage, what then?
She’s awful and one of those conservatives who hide behind some bastardized version of Christianity (I can’t keep up with all of the churches in the US) to avoid thinking for themselves.
Jess: Apologies, I’ll delete. Seriously sorry for this. I just don’t like her and l wrote this on no sleep. 😢
I have deleted that part about her eye. I am so sorry. That was insensitive of me and I will do better in the future.
Thank you! I know it’s easy to get caught up when you don’t like someone!
The new Sabrina is miles better.
I will say I’m happy that so many people are being exposed for the problematic, racist assholes they are.
This is a reminder that a lot of the celebs we credit with having some sort of performance talent or entertainment value are not very cultured and intelligent, perhaps?! I’m sure a lot of A-listers would make similar mistakes except they have huge PR machines and get a ton of people to vet each and every IG/social post. I thought Danica McKellar was a PhD in maths or something, or at least supposed to be intelligent.