UPDATE 10/15/17 1:17PM: Sunny has dropped the inevitable apology tweet, saying she's deleted her previous statement.
I've deleted my obviously polarizing & offensive statement. As a victim & warrior against sexual harassment in the work place, I apologize.
Original story is below
Patriarchy and male privilege are is so pervasive that it’s sadly uncommon to see women like Donna Karan and Stacey Dash join in the practice of victim blaming. Their word vomit comes despite the overwhelming statistics to support women being victim blamed and shamed into often withdrawing sexual assault complaints or failing to report them at all.
All of the above seems to have been lost on Food Network personality Sunny Anderson, who decided to weigh in on the list of women who accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault. Anderson unleashed the type of Twitter ignorance that left people wondering if she went and dapped up Woody Allenand Oliver Stone after she hit the “send” button.
In fact I blamed them and still do for not being BRAVE and reporting him before he had a chance to make one more victim.
“When I reported my 1st radio boss for sexual harassment, I felt brave,” Anderson tweeted late Saturday night. “The 4 co-workers that came out AFTER me were not brave to me...at all.”
At the risk of “mansplaining” here, Anderson’s thread continues by literally blaming her fellow assault victims saying, “In fact I blamed them and still do for not being BRAVE and reporting him before he had a chance to make one more victim.”
So much of what she tweeted was troubling because her arguments seemed to be completely devoid of logic.
So, as all these women come out of the woodwork...ask yourself... were they complicit in their silence? Complicit when taking payoffs?
People out here just using the word "brave" like they know what it is.
I refuse to call the 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 10th person to come out and say, "me too", BRAVE. We can call them LATE though ... or I can.
“So, as all these women come out of the woodwork...ask yourself... were they complicit in their silence? Complicit when taking payoffs?” Anderson tweeted.
Can someone who identifies as a victim of sexual assault really be so tone deaf as to assume all silence equals complicity? Why does Anderson assume the victims were “taking payoffs?”
For example, Mira Sorvino wrote that she initially brought her Weinstein assault claim to the attention of a female employee at Miramax.
“Her reaction was as though I was suddenly radioactive for daring to bring it up, which gave me little encouragement,” Sorvino added.
Naturally, Anderson began trending Sunday morning as word of her tweets spread, and it didn’t take long for users to start giving her that work in 140 character increments.
Sunny Anderson wears her granny's Friday night Bingo wig & makes food from cans on national TV & y'all think she cares about victim blaming?
Sunny Anderson is an example of how victims of sex crimes can become the worst victim blamers.
Sunny Anderson is a great example of how folks move the bar to blame women for powerful abusive men.
What the hell?? Not only are you wrong but you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. Ur words are so dangerous. https://t.co/vP0i20ykVV
Sunny Anderson has been cancelled for so long she decided to re-cancel herself. 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️ pic.twitter.com/bxj37tyAIb
Anderson’s ignorance notwithstanding, the main takeaway is to listen to women and avoid commentary on sexual assault scandals from anyone who kisses Paula Deen's racist lips.
