Did actor Morgan Freeman tweet that whiteness "is a disease"? No, that's not true: That tweet was made by a film director also named Morgan Freeman, who professionally goes by Morgan J. Freeman. Additionally, there are no tweets on actor Morgan Freeman's Twitter account at the time of writing that mention "whiteness."
The confusion began online after a tweet (archived here) was published on May 16, 2022, by Morgan J. Freeman. The tweet read:
Being 'anti-racist' starts by admitting 'whiteness' is a disease.
This is what the tweet looked like at the time of writing:
Being "anti-racist" starts by admitting "whiteness" is a disease.
-- Morgan J. Freeman (@mjfree) May 16, 2022
The tweet was from Morgan J. Freeman's account @mjfree and, like all other tweets made by any user, features his profile photo. While the actor Morgan Freeman is a Black man, the director Morgan J. Freeman is a white man:
(Source: Twitter screenshot taken on Tue May 17 14:26:46 2022 UTC)
Their Twitter profile bios also differentiate them. At the time of writing, director Morgan J. Freeman's bio clarified that he was not the same person as the actor, and read:
Dad, TV Producer, Filmmaker, Human Rights & Racial Justice Advocate... oh, and I don't act.
(Source: Twitter screenshot taken on Tue May 17 14:29:12 2022 UTC)
Conversely, actor Morgan Freeman's bio read:
That actor whose voice you recognize.
(Source: Twitter screenshot taken on Tue May 17 14:30:06 2022 UTC)
Lead Stories conducted an advanced Twitter search to see whether actor Morgan Freeman ever tweeted about "whiteness" through his account @morgan_freeman. The search generated no results at the time of writing:
(Source: Twitter screenshot taken on Tue May 17 14:50:19 2022 UTC)
Other Twitter users discussed the difference between the two individuals. Screenshots of such tweets (linked here, here and here, respectively) are included below:
(Source: Twitter screenshot taken on Tue May 17 14:56:10 2022 UTC)
(Source: Twitter screenshot taken on Tue May 17 14:57:11 2022 UTC)
(Source: Twitter screenshot taken on Tue May 17 14:58:18 2022 UTC)
