“Ask and you shall receive”: Bette Midler’s request of Black Women

“Did you ever know that you’re my hero, and everything I would like to be? I can fly higher than an eagle, for you are the wind beneath my wings.” — Bette Midler, Wind Beneath My Wings

On Thursday, September 19, 2019, singer and actress Bette Midler posed a question on Twitter asking if Beyoncé’s followers, known as the “Beyhive,” could prioritize voting against President Donald J. Trump during the 2020 presidential election year. Her tweet read as follows:

“#Beyoncé has 133 million Instagram followers. More than double the people who voted for Trump. Wouldn’t it be amazing if the #BeyHive mobilized to defeat him? I also wouldn’t mind if a regular bee hive fucked his shit up.”

While the request seemed harmless, given Beyoncé’s mass appeal and Midler’s apparent distaste for the current president — thus resulting in her push to remove him from office, Midler’s tweet was met with much criticism. Some felt she was putting unnecessary pressure on Black women to impact the presidency. For example, Twitter user @megi_jay wrote:

“Hi, white liberals need to stop pressuring black people into saving us. Black women are already very invested in the party-even though the party has often abandoned them. It’s on white people to work on other white people. You could have…