Fox News Host Said Slaves Who Built the White House Were Well-Fed and Housed
Audra McDonald Wednesday launched into a passionate and educational tweetstorm slamming a Fox News host who defended the use of slaves to build the White House. Tuesday night Bill O’Reilly expressed his discomfort with First Lady Michelle Obama‘s statement at the Democratic National Convention that she wakes up every morning “in a house that was built by slaves,” and the well-known Broadway and TV star responded brilliantly.
In response to O’Reilly’s claim that slaves that worked to build the White House “were well fed and had decent lodgings provided by the government,” McDonald offered this suggestion:
O’Reilly had noted that while slaves were used to build the White House, their masters, 400 of them, were paid, and the slaves, he tried to suggest, were well-treated – as if that somehow made it OK.Â
McDonald, a six-time Tony Award winner, also posted this:
And this:
And this:
And suggested this:
McDonald concluded:
Here’s the paragraph that set off the Fox News host:
“That is the story of this country,” Michelle Obama said, “the story that has brought me to this stage tonight, the story of generations of people who felt the lash of bondage, the shame of servitude, the sting of segregation, but who kept on striving and hoping and doing what needed to be done so that today, I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves and I watch my daughters –- two beautiful, intelligent, black young women –- playing with their dogs on the White House lawn. And because of Hillary Clinton, my daughters –- and all our sons and daughters -– now take for granted that a woman can be President of the United States.”Â
Last year McDonald, who often takes to Twitter to advocate for good, launched another tweetstorm taking on Indiana Gov. Mike Pence for signing an infamous anti-LGBT “religious freedom” bill into law.
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Image by Tyler Driscoll for Obama for America via Flickr and a CC license
Hat tip: Broadway World