Pirates & Shrek Screenwriter Terry Rossio Slammed on Twitter for N-Word Tweet

According to Variety, Pirates of the Caribbean & Shrek screenwriter Terry Rossio caused issues on social media after he included the N-word in a tweet arguing against vaccines. Rossio was replying to writer Julie Benson, who had posted a call for people to contribute to vaccination efforts, Rossio wrote:

“My heart goes out to all the parents of vaccine damaged children, who have to not only endure the sadness of their loss, but also the vitriol of ill-informed and insensitive people (such as those here). Anti-Vax is equivalent to calling someone a n—-r and makes as little sense.” (Rossio used of the full word.)

Rossio has been hired to write the Jonny Quest film for Warner Bros. Twitter users were quick to point out that calling someone anti-vaccination was absolutely not equivalent to calling them the N-word. Among them were writer Jeff Grubb, who said, “God, this is such a good point. I remember how American founders and citizens enslaved vaccine skeptics for decades. And then, even after freeing them, the government enshrined laws to marginalize vaccine deniers and to deny them wealth and opportunity. That’s just history.”

Disney had no comment on the situation.