Actress Sarah Silverman says she regrets her usage of the “N-word” in her comedy, saying she thought being “liberal” was enough to make people think she is not racist, and therefore could use the pejorative on stage.
“I felt like the temperature of the world around me at the time was ‘We are all liberal so we can say the N-word’ — ‘We aren’t racist, so we can say this derogatory stuff,'” Silverman told Rolling Stone, reflecting on her 2005 special, Jesus Is Magic.
“I was playing a character that was arrogant and ignorant, so I thought it was okay,” the There’s Something About Mary actress added. “Looking back, my intentions were always good, but they were fucking ignorant.”
In Jesus Is Magic, Silverman jokes that she refrained from disseminating an “edgy and hip” joke that “had the word nigger in it” because she was “afraid” after seeing black people in the audience.
“I’ll tell you why we make fun of midgets: we’re not afraid of them,” the School of Rock star said during the 2005 special, adding, “That’s what it boils down to, you know? I mean, I had a joke with the word nigger in it that I thought was so edgy and hip.”
“I was at this one club doing my show, and I looked in the front row and the whole table is black people or African American people, and I didn’t do it because I was afraid of them,” Silverman added in her comedy performance.
Then, following a brief pause, Silverman said, “And I ended up changing that joke to chinks, so, you live and you learn.”
The Don’t Look Up actress has also been slammed over an episode of her first TV show, The Sarah Silverman Program, in which she performed in blackface.
In 2018, Silverman devoted an episode to addressing the blackface incident on her Hulu show, I Love You, America. The actress has also apologized for other jokes she has made in the past.
“I don’t think of myself as being PC out of fear,” Silverman told Rolling Stone. “Some people got mad at me for apologizing. I only did that because I was sorry.”
“That’s a really great rule of thumb,” she added. “Only apologize when you’re sorry.”
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
