Da Brat And Jesseca Dupart-Harris Respond To Backlash Over Black Sperm Donor Joke
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On a recent episode of Tamron Hall, Da Brat and wife Jesseca “Judy” Dupart-Harris detailed their initial search for a sperm donor and addressed backlash they received after revealing which donor they chose and didn’t choose. The couple, who are expecting a baby boy, shared that their search for a Black sperm donor was met with challenges, leading them to choose a white donor.
“Because we didn’t have a lot to choose from,” the Chicago MC explained in an interview with The Root. “He definitely wasn’t Black. But I think we did a great job with picking. He’s handsome, he’s tall and I think he’s going to look beautiful with my wife’s egg.”
Due to Judy’s genetic screening, the couple were left with only 300 potential donors, and only one of them was Black. “And that [dude] looked like Jiminy Cricket,” Brat joked. “I was like, ‘I’m sorry but that wasn’t gonna be my choice.’”
While visiting Tamron Hall, Da Brat reflected on her “Jiminy Cricket” remark and stated she didn’t think that any of her jokes on their WEtv reality show Brat Loves Judy would offend anyone.
“I didn’t think it would be offensive to anybody,” Brat told Tamron. “I cracked jokes about almost everybody that I saw, that one just happened to make it in the show,” she added.
Noting that it was never her intentions to “be mean or say anything negative about Black people,” she declared, “We were looking for Black donor. We’re Black, we wanted a Black donor. So it was just misconstrued and taken way out of context. Like I talked about quite a few people as we were looking for donors, but that’s the one that made it.”
“I guess they thought it was funny and I didn’t think it would bother anybody or else I would have taken it out,” she said about producers of the show. “I had no idea people were going to be so offended, but I meant no harm whatsoever. If I offended anybody, I do apologize. But it was a joke between me and my wife and the doctor, like, we joke like that. We play around so it wasn’t meant to be offensive in any way.”
Judy chimed in and shared how she tried to manage the backlash they received.
“I was really trying to avoid her from seeing comments that said, ‘I just hope you guys miscarry.’ I think I was more affected because I know she I know she’s: ‘I don’t care. I don’t care.’ But it was a lot of stuff and I’m there…
“It was extreme hate and I feel like I’m kind of used to some of it you know, from being on social media, but when it comes to our child, something that we work really, really hard for — I was in the hospital — like something we worked really, really hard for. I felt like, ‘Oh my god, if nothing else at this time, I feel like this should be at least an educational moment so our people aren’t as ignorant.’”
See the expecting couple’s chat with Tamron Hall above.
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