Ashley Judd is a wacky person. She always has been. Some will defend her and say that she’s had a lot of tragedy in her life, and I understand that and sympathize. Some will say that she does good work behind the scenes, especially on the issue of human trafficking and girls’ rights. I understand that too. But I still maintain that there’s something not right with her. Well, Ashley Judd is yet another white person with “concerns” about President Joe Biden. Ashley loves a bandwagon, you see, and she saw how much attention George Clooney got for his horrid New York Times op-ed. Ashley is calling on President Biden to stand down, but not before she regales everyone with stories about her racist, Trump-supporting family and friends.
Wednesday evening, I was visiting, as we say in the South, with some of my beloved chosen and biological family. These folks are my roots, my sense of belonging, and meet many of my most intimate human needs. And some of them, remarkably, feverishly love Donald Trump. And I love these Trump folks as if my life depended on it, and at times, it literally has. I do not love the beliefs they believe and cling to.
And Wednesday, as I listened to one of my dearest people share some of those beliefs and thoughts, it hurt. I was shaken. My body felt like it was on fire. The words activated in me profound alarm in the aftermath of the recent debate at which President Joe Biden, a deeply decent man, was incapable of countering Trump, while he, unchecked, gushed a firehose of galling lies.
“Those people pouring over our border are less evolved than we are. They are naturally less intelligent. They have criminal natures. They are incapable of respecting the rule of law and order.”
“Men must be strong. They cannot be weak.” We were talking about the wish for boys and men to experience a full range of human emotions without shame or punishment. “It is dog-eat-dog and men will get eaten if they show any weakness. China has a massive, 2-million-man army. They aren’t teaching DEI. Good men must be willing to kill at any moment, but just know how to control that impulse.”
And Trump folks can act on those beliefs. Another one of my closest people, upon arriving at our local mall, came across Black youth hanging out, laughing, sitting on the hoods of cars. She went inside the mall to notify the security person on duty that Black kids were menacingly loafing and up to no good. The security person called the police.
I do not necessarily think all Trump supporters believe, feel, act and speak like this. I know Donald Trump himself does. That is critical. That is why I have come to realize that my private, personal belief is one I should no longer just keep to myself.
And so, I now ask President Joe Biden to step aside.
I’m laughing to keep from crying, but I’m also just laughing because holy sh-t, was Ashley Judd drinking when she wrote this? Imagine regaling everyone with stories about how you surround yourself with ignorant bigots, hateful racists and morons and after amplifying their bigotry and hate in USA Today, you then say: and that’s why President Biden needs to go!! If Ashley Judd’s nearest and dearest have an issue with “teaching DEI,” the answer is probably not turning the Black & Indian vice president into the Democratic nominee (I doubt that’s what Ashley wants either, funny!) Sidenote: the DEI-as-racist-dog-whistle thing has been really recent, right? It feels like it just happened this year, like it was in a Ku Klux Klan memo, that “DEI” should be used in place of a racist slur.
Anyway, this Judd op-ed ended up being pretty informative about Ashley Judd and not President Biden. Ashley Judd really hangs out with people who call the cops on Black children at the mall? That’s not a dealbreaker for her? That’s an Ashley Judd problem, not a Biden problem.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Ashley Judd at the 11th Annual Hope For Depression Research Foundation HOPE luncheon at The Plaza Hotel. New York City, New York – Wednesday November 8, 2017.,Image: 521749975, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS- Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: Dennis Van Tine / Avalon
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- 174060, Ashley Judd attends The 90th Annual Academy Awards-Arrivals in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 4th, 2018,Image: 534878810, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – DIRECT SALES ONLY – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: PacificCoastNews / Avalon
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- Ashley Judd Ashley Judd at the 11th Annual PaleyFest Fall TV Previews – EPIX s Berlin Station held at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, USA on September 16, 2017. Copyright: xZoonar.com/Lumeimages.comx 21761257,Image: 826431816, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no, Credit line: IMAGO/Zoonar.com/Lumeimages.com / Avalon
That story about calling the cops on black kids hanging out at the mall is appalling. I don’t know what point she thought she was making here but yikes. Those poor kids.
This whole op-ed, with its blithe admissions of tolerating racism and bigotry, was just one long “I don’t have anything against [outdated term for a minority group] personally, but…”, wasn’t it?
I would call the last line of the excerpt a non sequitur.
If your ‘chosen’ set of close family and friends are racist, you don’t condemn the behavior of said racists to their faces, and you can calmly recount the racist things that said loved say and do, then in fact, you are probably racist. There are plenty of people who have had to sever ties with loved ones because their family fell down the hole of conservative media. But, not Ms. Judd. She proudly states in a national publication that she still loves and hangs out with her racist family, and in doing so, gain a new clarity on the current president’s reelection campaign. Ashley Judd is a racist, unserious person.
Thats a very logical conclusion you have come to about her, based on her indictment of herself.
But also, to me, its a confession of the depth of her lack of self-esteem and any strength of character or any decency. Thats disappointing to realize about her altho not surprising, really. It tracks, wth her background.
Altho I dont go out of my way to watch her in anything, my one and only memorable exposure to her is her role in the 1999 film, Double Jeopardy. I really really love that movie. Watch it every chance I get. And ive glimpsed her in other similar tough, no-nonsense female character roles. But she strikes me as an actor who always seeks roles that allow her to play her opposite. Actors often take on characters that allow them to wear personae that in their real life, theyre not half as strong and principled.
This happens in family. You don’t choose your family but some have their own view and as long as they are not trying to push those views on you then just let them be. I stay away from talking about politics with family. It’s easier. I have some extreme communists thinking family members but that’s their ideals not mine.
If I spent time with people this awful, I like to think I’d have the good sense not to announce it.
The cognitive decline of both candidates is pretty obvious and only going to get worse as time goes on and a stressful campaign plays out…
I think Americans should just ignore both candidates and assume next year the country will be run far more than usual by their administration.
President Biden has led one of the most effective administrations ever. He has always had a stuttering problem which leads to difficulty choosing words. No man could sit through an interview like he did if he had cognitive difficulties. You’re reading too much of the “both sides” media.
Thank you!!! Biden has done an amazing job. The media has decided to magnify ever mistake he made, or makes. Accountability matters, but when it’s one sided it’s bullying and mean. The media is not holding Trump accountable for anything. And lord knows there is plenty to call him out on.
Thank you, Joanne for this thoughtful reminder.
People forget that he and Jill had planned to retire in Maui and hang out with the Obama’s.
After his exhaustive 8 years as VP.
But he stepped up from a sense of duty.
No one wants his job making 150K with the daily onslaught of criticism and the abject fear of losing Democracy on his watch.
I remain heartbroken at the loss of The Rule of Law.
I was hoping to get out before things got as bad as they are 😑
I know. I read that “both sides” post and thought “Oh, brother!” This person from God-knows-where blithely ignores that from 2020 to the present Biden has been presidentin’ the country without major issues and advising Americans on how they should approach the elections. Thanks but no thanks (eye roll).
We are who we surround ourselves with.
Doesn’t Ashley live in TN or KY? I say this with growing up in one and living for 13y in the other – no one should base any decisions on the federal/national voting preferences of people in those states. Both states will be called for Trump the moment the polls close, and could be called before. TN sent Marsha Blackburn to the senate. KY votes for Mitch McConnell! If Ashley lived in MI or hell even GA it might be worth listening to what her family says but even then it wouldn’t be the ones who are rabid Trumpers because no one is changing those minds.
There are probably racist yahoos as terrible as Judd’s family in all 50 states. But I totally agree–these people are not winnable. They needn’t inform the Democratic decision about who should lead the party into the most important election in our lifetimes.
i don’t understand what point she is trying to make here. She knows people who are racist trumpers so we have to replace Biden? What?
I read the piece as wanting to make the point that biracial Harris would not be an acceptable president for those like Ashley and her “dearest” people. Biden needs “to step aside” to avoid her “private personal belief” re: someone she and her ilk view as a “DEI” Vice President who would almost certainly became increasingly powerful if Biden is elected again. Oh, and she knows “Good men … willing to kill at any moment”.
From the little that I know of her, this is who she’s always been. To me, this reads like alcohol talking, but maybe this is just what she sounds like when she can no longer keep her previously private personal beliefs to herself. Yet another emboldened white person —who is so enamored with her own power that she believes she matters enough to publicly tell a sitting President what to do.
Oh, and by the way, do only Southern people “visit” other people?
I’v e lived in the Midwest the majority of my life and I’ve never used ‘visiting’ the way Ashley did. I probably would have said “went to see my friends” so I think she was both explaining a Southern-ism and trying to sound ‘down home’ so we would take her more seriously in context.
Thanks Susie Q! I’ve lived mostly in Mid-Atlantic cities. I would probably say “visiting with” an older person vs “hanging out” with my friends. I didn’t realize that “visiting” / “visiting with” was a regionalism.
I live in the PNW, and have always said “visiting” when talking about going to see someone, or asking someone how their visit with so-and-so was. 🤷♀️
It think she’s making 2 unconnected points. One, that it’s possible to love people with whom you don’t agree, although she seems to be way more tolerant than I would ever be. And the other is repeating the real fear in the Democratic party that Trump will win. There’s no sugar coating that the debate was shocking, even to those who already thought Biden is too old.
But there nothing to be done about it – Biden won’t leave just as Trump won’t leave. What concerns me is that people I know who would ordinarily vote for Biden are feeling so dispirited by the political climate that they don’t want to vote at all. I tell them they should just hold their noses and do it. There are other races that are super important, too.
This is why you need good editors who will screen this before publishing. Just because you’re a celebrity or a public figure does NOT mean you can form a coherent argument or thought. It does not mean you can write a cogent and insightful editorial. This is not a magical realism short where everything can be open-ended and mystifying—it needed to be questioned, with more clarification. We should NOT be left to extrapolate the conclusion of “Biden must step down” from all the anecdotes leading up to it; it’s simply nonsensical.
I think outlets get away with no editing by repeating the “Don’t look at me” of “opinions are only of the author and not of our staff.” And social media goes along with it by slamming the author and not asking why the piece was printed in the first place.
🎯
Before DEI at the corporate level- it was CTE in college/graduate school- which racists decided meant we were teaching small children the CTE curriculum, and got a whole bunch of gop creeps elected with the racism- see Gov of Virginia.
Before that it was affirmative action.
Also- don’t forget “woke”
They are all words that mean the same thing coming from racists- i want to be racist but suffer no repercussions- so i use the new word- and tell everyone it is horrid- and eventually- we quit with our initiative for human decency- so racists feel more comfortable in mainstream society where they have always been.
FACTS!!!
CTE? I thought it was CRT. And before that, “wokeness.” And before that, “political correctness.”
As long as there’s been racism, there’s been anti-racism–and racists calling anti-racists the real racists.
I have always been of the mindset that there is something wrong with her and that entire family frankly. And she is DEFINITELY telling on HERSELF with this piece.
She can have several seats…,.,
Wow! Talk about clueless! She actually thought she did/said something profound. Nice of her to out herself and her family as proud racists though. And I liked Ashley and most of her movies. These Hollywood actors who think that the masses are sheep who will take their words as gospel haven’t been paying attention. People, esp today’s generation, now also vote with their dollars at the box office so I hope she doesn’t have a movie coming out soon. There was a recent TikTok trend/challenge to boycott some celebrities so people are not playing with/tolerating celebrity bs anymore. Some people have to learn this the hard way.
@Chantal says:
“Nice of her to out herself and her family as proud racists though.”
LOL! ^THIS!
I bet when they see or hear about this theyll piss their drunk arse all over her for outing them like this. Racists know theyre racists but they dont like when you tell on them or expose them as she has done to her relatives.
Buckle up US Celebitches – looks like the right wing Dems are trying to copy the model of the recent UK elections by trying to shift the Dems to the right of the spectrum to occupy a space between the old GOP and Clinton’s Dem Party so that they can ‘rescue moderate Republicans’ and attract traditional white Democrats i.e. New Yorkers terrified of crime and Californians in their wealthy enclaves.
This invariably will lead to minorities and marginalised communities being thrown under the bus.
It’s going to be an interesting time.
Thank for you bringing this point up. What gets lost in the discourse about whether Biden should keep going or not is that the people who are supporting him tend to be POC or from marginalized communities. The people who are not enthusiastic about him as much or even at all tend to be white and a combo of center left/moderate and even far left — the latter who are unreliable in voting anyway. And I agree that there is a fracturing happening within the party, which could have some really detrimental long-term effects. The people who want to see him off the ticket should expect to see a drop-off in POC and minority voters voting in lockstep. If that’s what you want, so be it, but don’t expect these voters, especially Black women, to help you in the future.
Yes, I fear that.
Ashley Judd could use a good course in Logic because there is none here. 🤔
Worse yet, she is extending unconditional love to people who, by her own description, most certainly do not deserve it.
I thought she was supposed to be the smart one! The one with the masters degree! Wowzers, her degrees must’ve been gimmes.
She has always been unlikeable. When she first started out as an actress, and I didn’t know her, she seemed alright. Then she started doing press, and she came off as sort of an asshole, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Now she’s proudly displayed what she is: a closet racist.
Her oddness makes sense now. She appears to be the kind of person who thinks she isn’t racist or hateful and who is always trying to tamp that down. She is inauthentic about who she really is.
And thus the issue we’re all fighting against. The knee jerk reaction to slam rather than try to understand another opinion. We don’t need to agree, but neither do we need to defame.
Black American woman here: @Kim, I will always have an immediate response to racism. And no amount of “understanding” will make racism acceptable. While I do hope that we’ve reached a point where calling out racism has indeed become defamatory, I recognize that this simply isn’t true in many circles. Or did you mean something else?
Kim, we understand exactly what this is.
This idea that every opinion deserves consideration & respect of conversation is false.
I don’t owe racist, sexist, bigoted, misogynistic, transphobic, homophobic, opinions any of my time.
“We can disagree and still love each other UNLESS your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.”
― James Baldwin
PS: Racism is not a matter of opinion. Its not “rude,” its racist. And theyre not the same. Any denial of one’s humanity or any compromise of another’s equal rights and justice is bigotry, or which racism is of a piece.
I told this before on Clooney’s article. They want Biden to step down, then they are gonna go after Kamala. They will never accept her as Democratic nominee since she is WOC.
Hey Ash, here are a few more sayings:
You lay down with dogs, you get up with fleas.
Tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are.
You are the company you keep.
Birds of a feather flock together.
When the character of a (wo)man is not clear to you, look to his(her) friends.
Your company determines your character.
Do not be misled: bad company corrupts good character.
And lastly, from Booker T. Washington: Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company.
She’s clearly an idiot, but she’s just repeating what a lot of Democrat insiders have been saying. They’re afraid Biden can’t beat Trump. I am, as well, but it’s too late to do anything about it now except go out and vote.
This reminds me of a scene in “The Blind Side,” a movie that we now know was based on a lie.
Sandra Bullock’s character is at lunch with some of her well-heeled friends, and one of them asks her if she isn’t nervous to have Michael Oher at home with her teenage daughter. Bullock says “shame on you!” and it’s a little heroic moment for her. Similar vibe.
I mean, it’s good that Judd recognizes her friends are being assholes. It’s just notable that she doesn’t realize that by wanting Biden – a man who has been a successful and effective POTUS – to step aside because he’s old and has a stutter, she is acting like an asshole too.
I thiiiiiink I know what she was trying to get at? Maybe? I think if she had just thrown up a blanket ‘Trump supporters believe X, Y and Z’, people chafe at the generalization. By bringing up that she has people in her circle who think like this, she is trying to underscore what is at stake, what beliefs are going to be allowed to flourish and grow stronger if Trump wins.
However, her point is very convoluted and poorly expressed. Plus, she didn’t need to worry about making a demographic generalization when it comes to Trump supporters because her audience is fellow liberals and we know. We know Trumpers are racist bigots so we don’t need examples from her life to understand it.
And finally, urging Biden to drop out is the wrong move. It’s not going to be easy to get Biden re-elected but it will be nearly impossible to vote in another Democrat for four years if we swap out our candidate at this point. I’m not thrilled that we are in this position — my opposition against Biden in the 2020 Democratic primaries was that he was just too old. But once he had the nomination, I voted for him. And I will vote for him now. I do not think he is up to the task of being president for the next four years but I believe his administration is. Trump is just as cognitively weak as Biden plus he’s a cruel, greedy, uncurious, unsophisticated, idiotic, racist bigot who is ONLY concerned with growing his own personal wealth and power and he surrounds himself with sycophants who possess those same qualities.
To me, the choice is as clear as it is dire.
I think Ashley is really pretty.
She certainly proves the latter part of “Beauty fades, dumb is forever.”
I first saw Ashley Judd in The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.
Between her & Sandra Bullock, I was in love. I’d never seen 2 more beautiful women, let alone in one movie.
Sandra still does it. Ashley is ugly from the inside now, sad to say.
Same. I have only known her as a very pretty actress but yet another one of those who turned out to be rather disappointing as a person. There’s been so many of those in recent years.
I really must stop myself from having any expectations of celebrities just because I enjoyed their movies or music or show. Jon Stewart, for example. So disappointed.
She was really pretty, before she had all her work done. Now her face looks tight and pulled like everyone else who looks like the surgeon’s version of themselves.
I’ll never forget how her ex husband angrily responded to her during a time in which he was horribly injured and trying hard to focus and get better – that he wanted her to get the hell away from him with her obvious, desperate publicity pandering for her own selfish optics and not his genuine medical needs.
She’s another one of those aging Narcs who’s still searching for fuel ⛽️
I think Ashley Judd just sh!t in her pants. Oy! We Dems voted for Biden in the primaries and chose him as our candidate for POTUS; these ego-inflated celebrities need to respect the vote and the democratic process, otherwise they are no better than Tump/M*ga.
Kaiser’s right, there’s always been something off about her.
You know those people who love to hear themselves talk and think they are so profound and how impressed everyone must be? That’s Ashley whenever I read something she has written. This article written by Ashley comes across as smug and impressed with itself. Bugger off, Ashley. Also, it’s a word salad. So many jumbled thoughts are going on.
Her thoughts were so poorly expressed omg. She was trying to say how alarming it was to be near Trump fans and hear their twisted views and witness it up close. That she is so shaken by it and is desperate for him to lose so much so that a more popular candidate is needed. It was way too much of a lovefest. Bashing Biden will get us nowhere.
“These folks are my roots, my sense of belonging, and meet many of my most intimate human needs. And some of them, remarkably, feverishly love Donald Trump.”
— No. Just… no.