Everyone was pretty much squared firmly against Sandra Bernhard’s supposed comments that she thought staunch pro-life VP candidate Sarah Palin, would be “gang-raped by my big black brothers” if she visited NY City. Bernhard was dropped from a charity event for a women’s shelter after those very offensive remarks were made public. A spokesperson for the charity, Rosie’s Place, said that “we don’t think violence against women is a laughing matter.”
The only problem is, Bernhard said she didn’t say “rape” at all in regards to Palin and that she didn’t make those specific remarks. She’s pretty vague about what she did exactly say, though, and sort-of admits it was on that topic without that particular wording. If she wants to show the public that she wasn’t out of line it seems like she needs to produce some kind of video or audiotape.
Not true, says Bernhard, who is speaking out now because of the shelter, Rosie’s Place, and the harm she fears this story has and will cause them.
“I really feel bad for Rosie’s place,” she told Huffington Post Thursday afternoon. “It was definitely manipulated by whoever put this out there to begin with.”
So what happened during her show in DC? She said:
“I always contemporize my show and open with something of the moment. It so happens we are in the middle of a highly charged political time. And I’m a woman. And I’m concerned not only for myself but for my daughter and the future of all young women, specifically with Sarah Palin and her stance on reproductive rights.
“Being a comic, you go of on these really funny stream of consciousness tangents. So what I said, only funnier, was ‘are you willing to have the experience of getting raped and then keeping your child?’ Only I said it much funnier, and more fluidly. I never once said gang rape. Actually I never said rape. Of course what I said was outrageous, it’s insane, and I’m completely unapologetic about it.”
[From The Huffington Post]
The Huffington Post does include one firm piece of evidence on Bernhard’s side, and perhaps the quote that got so badly misconstrued. The Washington Post gave Bernhard’s performance a great review, and wrote “Bernhard declares in the D.C. Jewish Community Center that if Palin were to step onto her Manhattan turf, ‘I’ll tear her apart like a Wise natural kosher chicken.’”
That’s a lot more palatable and understandable. If that’s all she said it should be more widely reported so that whatever career she has left isn’t ruined by this false story. It would help her case if she was a lot more certain about what she did actually say, though.
