Julianna Margulies expresses regret for comments about Black, LGBTQ+ solidarity with Palestinians
Julianna Margulies has issued an apology for remarks she made during the Israel-Hamas conflict that connected Black and LGBTQ+ communities’ backing of Palestinians to what she saw as a perceived lack of support for Jews.
On the Nov. 20 episode of “The Back Room with Andy Ostroy” podcast, Margulies, who is Jewish, said “The fact that the entire Black community isn’t standing with us, to me, says either they just don’t know or they’ve been brainwashed to hate Jews, In the civil rights movement, the Jews were the ones that walked side by side with the Blacks to fight for their rights.”
She said a “Black lesbian club” at Columbia University “put signs up that said, ‘No Jews allowed,'” for a recent movie screening. “As someone who plays a lesbian journalist on ‘The Morning Show,’ I am more offended by it as a lesbian than I am as a Jew.”
Speaking of the club, Margulies said she wanted to call them “idiots,” continuing, “You don’t exist. You’re even lower than the Jews. A. You’re Black, and B. You’re gay and you’re turning your back against the people who support you?”
“I am horrified by the fact that statements I made on a recent podcast offended the Black and LGBTQIA+ communities, communities I truly love and respect,” Margulies said in a statement to Deadline and The Washington Post over the weekend. “I want to be 100% clear: Racism, homophobia, sexism, or any prejudice against anyone’s personal beliefs or identity are abhorrent to me, full stop.”
“Wish I could say that Julianna Margulies’ racist rant against Black people is an outlier. But as I’ve said before, I’ve heard this same sentiment from supposedly liberal circles. Solidarity w/ Black people is transactional. We are supposed to be grateful charity recipients,” Washington Post opinion columnist Karen Attiah, wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Julianna Margulies’ rant, not only reinforces racist anti-Arab / Islamophobic tropes but is also an attempt to remind Black people who stick up for Palestinians of their low place in the racial pecking order. And people still want to claim race has nothing to do with this.”