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Seattle singer-songwriter and podcast host John Roderick has apologised for using offensive slurs in some of his old tweets.
Roderick, who currently performs with the indie rock band The Long Winters, found himself involved in an internet controversy on Saturday (January 2) after he shared an anecdote about his daughter trying to open a tin of beans.
In a series of 23 tweets, Roderick, who has since deleted his Twitter account, explained how his daughter wanted to learn how to open the can of baked beans herself.
He went on to explain that his daughter couldn’t figure out how a can opener worked, but after six hours she worked it out, although the can had been put “through hell” with the “label ripped off, dented, sharpened and blurred, a veteran of a thousand psychic wars.”
“I know this is parenting theatre in some ways,” Roderick concluded. “I suffer from a lack of perseverance myself, and like all parents throughout history, I’m trying to correct my own mistakes in the way I educate my child. She sees through this.”
However, the thread sparked a backlash, with thousands of people criticising Roderick for the way he treated his daughter and dubbing him “Bean Dad”.
In case you missed Bean Dad aka john roderick before he deleted his Twitter account, this is what started it all. pic.twitter.com/KCKRP3099c
— ManiacalV will never DM you for money (ColinT) (@ManiacalV) January 3, 2021
After the “Bean Dad” saga, users began to dig up old tweets by Roderick where he’d used offensive slurs. He has now shared an apology for both the thread and his old tweets on his website.
He said the thread that brought him so much criticism was “poorly told” and exaggerated for effect, adding: “I framed the story with me as the asshole dad because that’s my comedic persona and my fans and friends know it’s ‘a bit’.”
Addressing the older tweets, he said they “were intended to be ironic, sarcastic”.
“I thought then that being an ally meant taking the slurs of the oppressors and flipping them to mock racism, sexism, homophobia, and bigotry,” he wrote. “I am humiliated by my incredibly insensitive use of the language of sexual assault in casual banter.”
He continued: “I deeply regret having ever used those words. I do not want to spread more hate in the world. I want the opposite.”
He added that he’ll be “taking a hiatus from my public life to let some of these lessons sink in.”
You can read his apology in full here.
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