Celebs react, loudly, to the new #HarrietTubman $20 bill
Celebrities took to Twitter with passion and emotion after yesterday's news that the Treasury Department would put abolitionist and suffragist Harriet Tubman on the front of the $20 bill. Many were full of praise for the gesture, but there were also some dissenting views and alternative suggestions. Here's a sampling:
Singer and actress Audra McDonald:
I'm gonna pay everything I ever owe in 20$s from now on! Mortgage, student loans, dinner, taxes...ALL OF IT!! #HarrietTubman
— Audra McDonald (@AudraEqualityMc) April 20, 2016
"The Princess Diaries" star Heather Matarazzo tweeted, "Now I have a reason to go the ATM."
Finding out racist Andrew Jackson is being replaced by Harriet Tubman is magic. Now I have a reason to go the ATM.#HarrietTubman #justice
— Heather Matarazzo (@HeatherMatarazz) April 20, 2016
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden:
Outlaw. Fugitive. Hero. #HarrietTubman https://t.co/AJsVLmSC65
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) April 20, 2016
New York Times columnist and author Charles Blow:
Now, I will only carry $20s. If I have $16, I'm going to leave it home until I come up on another four. #HarrietTubman
— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) April 20, 2016
Unlikely Miss Universe 2016 host Steve Harvey:
I'm gonna need my pockets full of Tubmans!
— Steve Harvey (@IAmSteveHarvey) April 20, 2016
Fox News pundit Greta Van Susteren suggested an idea Treasury Secretary Jack Lew calls "unconventional":
Abolitionist #HarrietTubman was a real hero - give her her OWN bill ($25), not a used one ($20) pic.twitter.com/jd6ybs0pFv
— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) April 21, 2016
At the same time, some suggested the new bill was an insignificant gesture in light of larger racial injustice. Rapper Azealia Banks called the move "patronizing" and said Tubman "would be deeply offended":
So, they're gonna put Harriet Tubman on he 20$ bill as another little trinket to keep blacks satisfied. But won't repay us for slavery
— AZEALIABANKS (@AZEALIABANKS) April 20, 2016
Lew first announced his plans to feature a woman on U.S. currency last June, igniting a spirited public debate about the many female icons who've gone relatively unrecognized throughout U.S. history. According to Lew, the Treasury received more than a million responses -- from handwritten notes to emails to tweets -- from people with opinions on who should be chosen.
The Treasury Department has asked the Federal Reserve and Bureau of Engraving and Printing to work closely to put the new bill into circulation as quickly as possible.
Harriet Tubman is not replacing Andrew Jackson entirely. The Treasury Department plans to move Jackson to the back of the bill along with an image of the White House. The move creates a loaded visual symbolism: on the front, an escaped slave who risked her life helping others escape as a leader on the Underground Railroad, and on the back, an ex-president who at the time of his death enslaved approximately 150 human beings.
The irony was not lost on Jamil Smith of MTV:
That news about Andrew Jackson staying on the back of the Harriet Tubman $20 bill is just like America.
— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) April 20, 2016