Source: MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images / Getty
Many folks tweeted about the untimely deaths of DMX and Prince Philip on April 9, 2021. One person who came under fire for her comments about their passing is Kerry Washington. When she acknowledged their deaths on Twitter, she wrote:
“Anybody else wondering what DMX and His Royal Highness Prince Philip are chatting about together at the pearly gates? My love to both their families. May they both Rest In Peace.”
Though she didn’t have any malicious intent behind her tweet, it wasn’t received well and she caught some backlash.
“Now we all know they’re not even remotely in the same line,” one person tweeted. “One of them slid down @LilNasX pole to hell and it wasn’t DMX.”
Someone tweeted that they were cut from two different clothes and didn’t need to be mentioned together.
“DMX and Prince Phillip going to two very different places…don’t lump in DMX with a white supremacist pls queen,” another person wrote.
“Kerry Washington wanted us to fantasize about Prince Philip calling DMX racial slur in the afterlife,” another tweet read. “Nasty work.”
Another tweet read: “What makes Kerry Washington think Ph*…… would even look in DMX’s direction without calling him a nigger… furthermore what in the world makes her think they’d be in the same place after death…”
Washington later deleted the tweet.
Many were baffled by her tweet because DMX and Prince Philip are wildly contrasting figures. DMX was a hip-hop icon that was beloved by his fans and respected. Prince Philip, the longest serving husband in the British monarchy, was known for making inappropriate and racial slurs.
“He was a throwback to old-school racism,” Kehinde Andrews, Professor of Black Studies at Birmingham City University told CNN. “Painting him as a benign, cuddly uncle of the nation is simply untrue.”
Washington didn’t respond to the criticism.
