Terry Rossio, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of such family-friendly films as “Aladdin,” “Shrek” and “Pirates of the Caribbean,” apologized Sunday for using the n-word in a tweet Friday.
“In a recent Twitter post, arguing against stereotyping and hate speech, I referenced the ‘n-word’ (the actual word) as an example of what not to do. That was a mistake. I am sorry,” he wrote. “I now understand that the word has no place in any conversation, ever.”
He went on to say, “You can’t make a point against hate speech and reference actual words of hate speech. That was insensitive and ignorant.” He added that he “immediately deleted” the post “to remove that toxic word from the internet, where it should never appear in any context.”
In Friday’s offensive tweet, Rossio said that calling people who are opposed to vaccinating their kids “anti-vax” is like calling someone the n-word.
“My heart goes out to all the parents of vaccine damaged children, who have to not only endure the sadness of their loss, but also the vitriol of ill-informed and insensitive people (such as those here). Anti-Vax is equivalent to calling someone a n–er and makes as little sense,” Rossio wrote. (He did not dash out the letters.)
Backlash came swiftly, with his comment being called, among many things, “not just ignorant, but also racist.”
You can read his complete apology in the tweets below.
https://twitter.com/TerryRossio/status/1066546212101283840
https://twitter.com/TerryRossio/status/1066546276060192768