Chelsea Handler Accused of Racism After Live Tweeting Academy Awards

Chelsea Handler is under the gun this week because of a few Twitter posts regarding the film 12 Years a Slave, causing many to call the late night host’s tweets “racist” and “offensive”.

It all started the Sunday night of the Academy Awards when Huffington Post invited the comedian to cover their Twitter account during the show. She took this opportunity to promote her new, upcoming book titled Uganda Be Kidding Me. Normally, such a thing wouldn’t be taken so seriously… but Handler’s book advertisements were a bit ill timed as she chose to hashtag her book every single time 12 Years A Slave was mentioned.

For example, in one tweet she wrote, “Congratulations #12yearsaslave Go to Africa or buy #ugandabekiddingme amzn.to/1de1ka9 #aheadofthecurve #Oscars”

“Disgraceful,” “offensive” and “racist” are only just a few of the words that Twitter users responded with.

Huffington Post's senior executive director, Perri Dorset, defended the publication by explaining that they were very clear about the celebrity Twitter feed coverage. He insisted that Huffington Post has invited many other celebrities to do the same over the years, making sure to add, “the views are theirs, not ours”.

In addition to her 12 Years of Slave controversy, Handler also made a few jabs at Oscar award winner Lupita Nyong’o.

She tweeted, “#AngelinaJolie just filed adoption papers #lupitanyongo #Oscars”

Neither Handler nor her publicist have responded to any of the backlash as of yet.