Bullying Works

Jennifer Holliday's decision to back out of her performance at the inauguration of the 45th president of the United States teaches us something: Bullying works.

From the Associated Press:

Broadway star Jennifer Holliday has backed out as a performer at next week's presidential inaugural, saying she did not realize that her participation would be interpreted as a statement of support for President-elect Donald Trump.

Holliday, best known for her Tony-winning role in Broadway's "Dreamgirls," faced pressure from her gay, lesbian and black fans when it was announced she would sing at a Thursday concert at Washington's Lincoln Memorial.

Holliday said in a statement Saturday that she apologized for her lapse of judgment, for being uneducated on the issues and causing heartbreak for her fans.

Several prominent entertainers have declined to perform at Trump inaugural festivities.

Previously, Jennifer Holliday had stated she would not back down in the face of the attacks.

She did. I don't fault her. Avoiding abuse is not unreasonable.

However, the entire mess is extremely unfortunate. The Trump-hating mob is merciless.

From the New York Times:

Ms. Holliday said she was asked on Wednesday if she would sing at the concert scheduled for Jan. 19, and she agreed, seeing the request as similar to those she received to sing at the White House during past Republican and Democratic presidencies. “I just thought of the history part of it, and about singing on the mall where Marian Anderson paved the way for me to sing as a black American,” she said, referring to a 1939 concert that Ms. Anderson, a popular singer, performed from the Lincoln Memorial after being denied permission to sing at Constitution Hall because she was black.

Ms. Holliday said she had been startled and disheartened on Friday by the venom that greeted the news of her participation.

“It brought a lot of threats from people already saying I’ll never work again,” she said. “If that’s what America has come to, where we all hate and bully people, there’s no more freedom of speech.”

She added, “I know everybody hates me now, but that shows we are all just hateful people now — we don’t even want to work together.”

Yes, we're all just hateful people.

How nice!