Twitter Rises as One to Smite Keith Olbermann for Calling Trump a ‘Whiny Little Kunta Kinte’ in Now-Deleted Tweet
Sportscaster and political commentator Keith Olbermann incurred fierce backlash when he referred to President Donald Trump as a “whiny little Kunta Kinte,” referencing the name of the famous character from Roots.
On Tuesday morning, Olbermann posted a clip of Trump bashing Fox News during his lengthy Fox & Friends interview, and captioned the segment “Yes @realDonaldTrump has always been, will always be, and on the day of his bid for re-election, still is: a whiny little Kunta Kinte”.
The tweet sparked immediate backlash, and made Olbermann a top national trending topic. Journalists, media figures, and other blue-checks piled on, and the theory that Olbermann was using a man who was abducted into slavery, tortured, and mutilated as a euphemism for the c-word shockingly did not help.
a whiny little WHAT? https://t.co/Zt8TiPm4Qi
— Steadman™ (@AsteadWesley) November 3, 2020
if olbermann was tryna call tromp a c-nt, does that mean that that’s how white people think ‘kunta kinte’ is pronounced?
— Brokey S. Pumpkins (@brokeymcpoverty) November 3, 2020
You should’ve just said cunt If you meant cunt and not tried to be funny. This shit is racist and inaccurate as fuck. Calling Kunta Kinte whiny?! WHINY?! How fucking dare you.
— Kimya Dawson (@mrskimyadawson) November 3, 2020
This is who they are. https://t.co/rx1xFqbn0C
— Mickey White (@BiasedGirl) November 3, 2020
This tweet is disgusting and makes no sense. pic.twitter.com/dY7GuBrSlv
— Michael Blackmon (@blackmon) November 3, 2020
— post-halloween fear surplus sale ? (@sharkespearean) November 3, 2020
Makes sense pic.twitter.com/7doVMt3mmt
— Alex Kotch (@alexkotch) November 3, 2020
Trying to be too clever by an inverse proportion, Keith.
— Will Greenwald no Densetsu (@AggroWill) November 3, 2020
A white man called another white man a Kunta Kinte? pic.twitter.com/lzAo1egRG4
— Shay Stewart Bouley (@blackgirlinmain) November 3, 2020
Kunta Kinte & Liberia log onto to Twitter… pic.twitter.com/xZNkjY5SAw
— Jeffrey Vote Out This Gameshow Clown Wright (@jfreewright) November 3, 2020
This is what “a whiny Kunta Kinte” looked like as depicted in Alex Haley’s “Roots” the sheer unabashed cruelty of White supremacy. Trump is the modern advancement of that aim, not the object of it as Keith Olbermann recklessly tweeted: pic.twitter.com/8QRu6LLJP0
— ??????? ???? (@exavierpope) November 3, 2020
When Kunta Kinte was suffering the human rights atrocity of being hung, tied, & whipped in w/ audience in order to change his African name to an English in “Toby” he screamed & howled with every lash he took at the inevitable defeat he would suffer so this was the SICK comparison https://t.co/78e7aXv64B
— ??????? ???? (@exavierpope) November 3, 2020
Ahhh…we knew our daily dose of racism would come earlier this morning smh. The clown shows are going to be in full swing all day ? #ElectionDay https://t.co/Iy0sQiO4aB
— theGrio.com (@theGrio) November 3, 2020
I am so stupid that it took me eighteen full minutes to grasp the appalling “joke” he was trying to make. OTOH, at least I am demonstrably not the stupidest person on Twitter today. https://t.co/CPzI4W48Ub
— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) November 3, 2020
Kunta Kinte, huh?
Vote how you want. They are on BOTH sides. https://t.co/zJ55eKbrbZ
— Marland Lowe (@MarlandLowe) November 3, 2020
This…ain’t it, Keith.
— Holly Figueroa O’Reilly (@AynRandPaulRyan) November 3, 2020
don’t
— John Iadarola (@johniadarola) November 3, 2020
It’s true that there are plenty of descriptive words to use for him that have nothing to do with the female anatomy
— Tara Dublin #IVoted #BidenHarris2020 #WearAMask ? (@taradublinrocks) November 3, 2020
Going to go out on a limb and say something extremely controversial: Kunta Kinte had some extremely legitimate concerns https://t.co/rGT6utCwiZ
— Novembitch Li’l ? listen to @onbeliefpod (@karengeier) November 3, 2020
Delete this
This ain’t it @KeithOlbermann https://t.co/NptLq84BKQ— Chester M. Pitts, II (@ChesterPitts) November 3, 2020
i don’t understand this tweet but it’s racist https://t.co/eNZ2wmXye7
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) November 3, 2020
We’re gonna see a lot of bad tweets today huh https://t.co/FdDQcKHQ8x
— Anna Fitzpatrick (@bananafitz) November 3, 2020
After about three hours, Olbermann finally deleted the tweet, and posted a new one with an apology that included calling the name “Kunta Kinte” a “sound-alike” for the c- word, which it is not.
Just logged back in: I apologize for my previous subtweet of this. I was using an old 70’s-80’s technique for calling somebody a c*** without writing/saying c***, just using a sound-alike to call Trump a c***
Deleting previous, largely because this one clarifies the c*** part https://t.co/hIIrt1Ke17
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) November 3, 2020
That explanation got what has to be the most authoritative response in the history of Twitter:
Dear @KeithOlbermann, #Kunta is pronounced with a long “u” as in unity, not a short “u” as in cup.
Try again!
Love,
Kunta— LeVar Burton (@levarburton) November 3, 2020
Olbermann also produces commentary for his YouTube channel.
