One thing that bugs me: when Jon Stewart was accused of making fun of trans people, he had the grace and class to apologize. e.g. he made a joke one time about a “tranny prostitute”, and he indicated that he was sorry, and realizes now that it was wrong - people should never “punch down”.
The thing with Chappelle is that as a black man, it is not clear that has ever “punched down”? Even so, he probably should have risen to the occasion and just apologized. I think he’s correct in what he’s saying, though profits off of saying it offensively so does that. Which still advances the cause of getting the issues discussed more broadly in society, but also rankles a bit - a role that he seems okay with, and might even be necessary, though not one that we should ever aspire to ourselves. He at least is smart enough to handle walking that line, and deal with whatever consequences may come.
Also, oddly enough, whether it’s due to Chappelle’s challenges or whatever, I hear some of the same talk coming from actual LGBTQ comedians? e.g., there is a difference b/t “sex” and “gender” - like if a big dude walks up to you, with a beard and a deep voice, and says that they are a woman, obviously they must be referring to the latter rather than former, but it’s not always so easy to tell otherwise.
Though Chappelle is saying that from the “outside”, while there are other dicussions happening from the “inside”, so he still gets razed b/c he shouldn’t be the one saying it, even if they are identical words. Context matters. Also, he says it in an insensitive manner, b/c that too is his style of reaching out to poor, less educated people.
And all of this is complicated still further by the actions of the other side - e.g. there was some controversy about how employees of Netflix tried to force their way into director-level meetings about the subject, and they were fired. Was that b/c they were trans? Not… entirely, or even mostly - they were fired b/c they were acting entitled and ignoring the standards of professional behavior. Though there was a huge outcry b/c how dare Netflix fire people “for being trans”. (Also relevant, their being trans themselves gave them sympathy, which lead to why they acted the way that they did, feeling personally impacted).
Remember though, “cancelling” isn’t simply choosing not to go to a show anymore - that’s your personal choice, and it does not rise to “cancelling” until something like a gang of bikers blocks all the roadways leading into the show. The show people paid money for the venue, did the advertising, rented the space, got the permits, travelled, using their gasoline, and on and on it goes - and some of the audience members likewise wanted to come, but something in-between the seller and the buyer blocked them, “cancelling” the show, setting themselves up as the moral authority to show-block the will of all of the other parties. i.e., they acted as Karens, exactly in the same manner as those states that are trying to block medical care to trans people, but on the other side. Whenever you set yourself up to be the moral authority of a subject, different expectations begin to be applied to a “leader” rather than a mere participant.
Often, pushing media companies to live up to their ideals about inclusion and equality is a long game, requiring sustained pressure and constant scrutiny — a much different notion than so-called “cancel culture.” Responding to problematic media with a knee-jerk push to cancel people just encourages companies to react without nuance or deliberation when a controversy erupts.
So… there are problems and imperfect steps taken by all sides of this matter. And it does not help that trans people seem like they could care less about issues faced by black people - they just want theirs, and that’s all. It would help if we all could push just for “civil rights” and have that be inclusive of ALL, but b/c of the extremely low numbers, plus the extreme severity of the issues faced by black people, if that were to happen then trans people would not have gotten a fraction of the attention that has been awarded there in the past (if effort was put in according to that principle “to each according to their need”). Again, words may hurt people’s feelings but… you know what I am going to say don’t you… BREONNA TAYLOR WAS SLEEPING!!! Those are not at the same level at all.