EffieBlack
EffieBlack's JournalRemember back in school when a kid showed up at school with a broken leg and crutches?
And everybody thought it was so cool and they grabbed his crutches and took turns walking around on them pretending they, too, had a broken leg?
And the kid who had really broken his leg just sat and watched everybody playing with his crutches, and shook his head because the crutches had gotten old a long time ago and he wished he didn’t need them because they stopped being fun about 30 seconds after the doctor gave them to him. And now his armpits were chapped and his arms ached and his fingers were cramped. And his cast itched and his leg hurt like hell. He wished he could not have a broken leg and not need those damned crutches and he could just get up and run around and play like everyone else. But he couldn’t move two feet without them because his leg was all jacked up.
And he really needed to go to the bathroom, but his friends were having so much fun playing with his crutches that they didn’t realize they weren’t a toy and that he really needed them just to get around, something they could do without crutches and without even thinking about it. And he was both annoyed and amused that they were so eager to use his crutches when they didn’t need them at all, they didn’t understand that crutches weren’t toys, and they didn’t appreciate how awesome it was NOT to need crutches just to get to the damned toilet.
That’s what the great 2018 DU Wypipo Drama reminds me of ...
NY Times Op-Ed: "Roseanne is gone, but the culture that gave her a show isn't"
Roseanne is gone, but the culture that gave her a show isn’t
by Roxanne Gay
For once, a major network did the right thing. But before it did the right thing, it did the wrong thing. It is not new information that Roseanne Barr makes racist, Islamophobic and misogynistic statements and is happy to peddle all manner of dangerous conspiracy theories. ABC knew this when it greenlighted the “Roseanne” reboot. ABC knew this when it quickly renewed the reboot for a second season, buoyed, no doubt, by the show’s strong ratings.
The cast, the writers and the producers knew what Ms. Barr stood for when they agreed to work on the show. Everyone involved made a decision to support the show despite its co-creator’s racism. They decided that their career ambitions, or desire to return to network television, or financial interests would best be served by looking the other way. It was only when Ms. Barr became an immediate liability that everyone involved finally looked at her racism and dealt with it directly.
...
Ms. Barr was free to speak her mind, but she was not free from consequences. Now that she is reaping those consequences, many people are praising ABC and its swift action. But there is no nobility in what anyone involved in “Roseanne” has done at any point during the reboot’s trajectory. Certainly, I empathize with all of the people who are now out of work, particularly those in the trades — the grips, best boys, camera people, production assistants and others who are not famous faces. But I also question what kind of empathy the decision makers had for the targets of Ms. Barr’s hateful rhetoric as they supported this show and her. They seemingly had none. Even at the recent network upfronts, ABC executives were joking about Ms. Barr’s Twitter feed.
Channing Dungey, the president of ABC Entertainment, said in a statement, “Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show.” Bob Iger, the chairman and chief executive of Disney, ABCs parent company, said, “There was only one thing to do here, and that was the right thing.” The cast member and producer Sara Gilbert lamented the show’s demise and said, “Roseanne’s recent comments about Valerie Jarrett, and so much more, are abhorrent and do not reflect the beliefs of our cast and crew or anyone associated with the show.”
All of these statements sound conscientious and righteous. These statements make it seem as if ABC is invested in doing the right thing. The statements make it seem as if the cast and crew are nothing like the show’s star. These statements are but part of an elaborate and lucrative illusion. ABC is the same network that shelved an episode of “Blackish” because it addressed the N.F.L. anthem protests.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/opinion/roseanne-canceled-abc-racist-tweets.html
Some rich people lead difficult, miserable lives. Does that mean economic privilege doesn't exist?
"Privilege? All Roseanne had to do to keep her job is not compare a black woman to an ape."
"And she couldn't even do that. That's the kind of structural racism and privilege we're talking about." - Jason Johnson.
Boom!
If you're not watching MSNBC's "Everyday Racism in America," I recommend you turn it on
Very insightful.
Roseanne cancellation shows what happens when we push back against White Privilege.
Roseanne got away with an awful lot over the past few years. And it is hard to dispute the fact that her white privilege allowed her to do so. And make no mistake, Roseanne has been living off of white privilege for decades. No person of color could pull the crap and say the things she has and be handed another golden opportunity like their very own show on a major network, huge ratings and loving kudos from the president of the United States.
But here's the thing. Roseanne thought her privilege entitled her to behave, in public, like a defiant, obnoxious bigoted ass. And maybe that was true until very recently.
But diversity happened and she wasn't paying any attention.
One of the wonderful things about diversity, isn't just that it ensures greater opportunity and fairness and allows people to interact with people who don't like them, but that it creates an environment that makes the kind of behavior Roseanne exhibited less tolerable and even less tolerated.
Very early in my career, I was confronted with a situation that I found intolerable and decided that I was going to speak up and make a stand. One of my mentors, a very wise older black man, told me that would be a mistake. He counseled me that I had not been in my position long enough for any of my bosses to give two hoots about whether I was pissed off and they really wouldn't care if I walked away - they'd just write me off as a trouble-making non-team player and replace me with someone else and not think any more about it. Instead, he said, "You have to stick around, put up with this crap until you've worked hard enough and been there long enough that you getting mad and walking away would hurt their bottom line. in the meantime, you just suck it up." I told him that wasn't fair. Why do I have to put up with being insulted this way. "Life's not fair, kiddo. You're black. Things are going to be harder for you. Get used to it."
This situation calls that to mind. A few years ago, Roseanne might have gotten away with it. But not today. She just learned the hard way that she's not the only big dog at ABC. There are other people there with lots of clout. People who don't look like her. People who don't like her crap and aren't going to put up with it. People who had enough pull and make the network enough money that when they put their feet down, the network has no option but to listen.
People like Wanda Sykes who walked away this morning and, in so doing, probably scared a whole lot of people up in the C-suite. People like Shonda Rhimes - ABC's big moneymaker - who I am SURE had at least one, in-depth, "oh, HELL no" conversation with someone very high up in the ABC hierarchy this mornig. Someone who would be absolutely terrified (and probably jobless) if they pissed off Shonda Rhimes so much that she walked away.
And, maybe sweetest of all - the ABC exec who made the announcement of Roseanne's cancellation (and likely was involved in the decision to do it) was Channing Dungey, African-American woman and, more important, as president of ABC Entertainment, Roseanne's BOSS.
Roseanne got so caught up in her Trumpland world that it didn't occur to her that this was possible. She thought she could say what she wanted and that ABC wasn't going to fight her because, you know, number 1 tv show and all.
Roseanne thought she could get away with it, but, as my mother would say, she thought like Nit. (Don't ask me what that means, but you get my drift).
A racist tv star whose big mouth got her show cancelled isn't going to change the world. But it does give the world a good look at how things work when white privilege gets trumped by a little bit of black power
Roseanne's agent just dropped her
This is getting good.
It's particularly interesting that this is all happening less than a week after Trump fans cheered when an employer cracked down on their employees' speech. I wonder how they're going to square this circle.
Can you imagine the reaction if the NFL told Tebow to stop tebowing because the open display of
religiosity is offensive to their fans who do share his religious beliefs, is unrelated to football, and is out of place at a sporting event?
Yeah. Me, too.
"Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is"
So, the challenge: how to get across the ideas bound up in the word "privilege," in a way that your average straight white man will get, without freaking out about it?
...
Okay: In the role playing game known as The Real World, "Straight White Male" is the lowest difficulty setting there is.
This means that the default behaviors for almost all the non-player characters in the game are easier on you than they would be otherwise. The default barriers for completions of quests are lower. Your leveling-up thresholds come more quickly. You automatically gain entry to some parts of the map that others have to work for. The game is easier to play, automatically, and when you need help, by default it's easier to get.
...
As the game progresses, your goal is to gain points, apportion them wisely, and level up. If you start with fewer points and fewer of them in critical stat categories, or choose poorly regarding the skills you decide to level up on, then the game will still be difficult for you. But because you're playing on the "Straight White Male" setting, gaining points and leveling up will still by default be easier, all other things being equal, than for another player using a higher difficulty setting.
https://kotaku.com/5910857/straight-white-male-the-lowest-difficulty-setting-there-is/amp?__twitter_impression=true
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