Dear White People Showrunner Quits Netflix Over Dave Chappelle's Transphobic Special

[Sympthsical]

51. They don't concern me

I didn't vote for those organizations. Unless there was an LGBT election and my ballot got lost in the mail, it's immaterial to me what groups who get most of their social and political currency from being in the center of these kinds of shit storms think. What was anyone expecting? That they'd say nothing?

I watched his special. He specifically asks people to humanize others. That was what the entire story of Daphne was about. People who reduced it to, "Dave tries to hide behind a trans friend," didn't bother paying attention or understanding context because they were already primed not to pay attention or read for context. They went in expecting to blast and hate him. Ok, succeeded there. Well done. But to say he wants to dehumanize? After all he said in that? I'm sorry, you have to reach for that one based on some preconceived notions.

He didn't even make an AIDS joke in this special. He said Da Baby "Pressed the LGBT community in the AIDS button." Which is just a humorous way of saying, Da Baby got in trouble for coming at us on one of the topics we are most sensitive about.

I'm all for critical thinking, but I'm not finding a lot in the commentary and reviews so far. That whole special was designed to go after Twitter. He did a great job of pulling the mask off it. Particularly once you learn what his trans friend went to courtesy of the clicktivists.

Chappelle's a big, juicy target to point a finger at. People can do so. But I'm pointing fingers at a toxic, harassing online culture that is terrible for mental health, dehumanizes people regularly, and shamelessly promotes authoritarianism in thought. I don't know what about punishing heretics went so well for minorities in the past that we feel the need to emulate it. Sometimes, when people who've never had power suddenly get it, it doesn't go so well. And, IMO, we're seeing a lot of that now on social media.

Dave Chappelle will come and go. But the social culture the clicktivists are getting away with? That shit will last and continue to do damage long after he leaves the stage if it's not called out. He's a bit too big for Twitter to really do anything to him. And, boy, does that piss them off.