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| Link to the article | |
| Last Edit: Ann 09:56 pm EDT 08/20/20 | |
| Posted by: Ann 09:56 pm EDT 08/20/20 | |
| In reply to: Rainbow apologizes in the Advocate - Billhaven 07:09 pm EDT 08/20/20 | |
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| Link | At The Advocate |
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| Question about the Rainbow Rainbow tweets quoted in THE ADVOCATE article | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 10:45 am EDT 08/21/20 | |
| In reply to: Link to the article - Ann 09:56 pm EDT 08/20/20 | |
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| Hi, all. Having read the full article in THE ADVOCATE, with three of the Rainbow Rainbow tweets in question, I have some questions about two of them. The tweet I don't have any questions about is this one: “Why is it OK to call it a ‘white noise’ machine, yet offensive to say that I bought it to drown out all the ‘black noise’ in my building?” I have no trouble understanding why many people would find that offensive, regardless of the fact that I'm sure it was meant as "just a joke." But in the case of the other two tweets quoted in the article, I honestly don't understand what the specific problem is. Here's the first one: “My parents said that had I been a girl, my name would’ve been Randi with an ‘i.’ And had I been black, it would’ve been ‘MISS JENKINS!!!’ Looking at the first sentence above, are people upset because they find it offensive for someone to reference the fact that some first names which have been popular among both men and women have often been spelled differently depending on the person's gender? If so, would the changing of "Bobby" to "Bobbie" in the new version of Sondheim's COMPANY also be considered offensive for the same reason? As for the second part of the tweet, at first I didn't understand it at all, but then I asked a friend who explained that it must be a reference to the character Marla Gibbs played in 227 -- a show with which I'm unfamiliar. So, do people object to this quote because they find it offensive that Rainbow was trying to make a joke in reference to a black character played by a black actress on an old sitcom, even though -- as far as I can tell -- he said nothing negative (or positive) about the character or the actress? The other controversy I don't understand is the one over the following tweet: “Black & White cookies R a delicious metaphor for racial harmony :) But they taste better if U keep both halves segregated. I mean separated!” In this case, I think it's safe to assume that RR is not in favor of segregation. So, are people upset about this tweet for the fact that the very serious matter of black/white segregation would be used as fodder for attempted humor? That's the only guess I can come up with, but if there's something else I'm missing, please let me know. I'm being 100 percent sincere when I say that I'm asking these questions not rhetorically and not because I have already arrived at an opinion and am looking for an argument, but because I'm honestly not sure I fully understand exactly what people find offensive in those two quotes, and I would be very interested to read various people's thoughts about that. |
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| re: Question about the Rainbow Rainbow tweets quoted in THE ADVOCATE article | |
| Posted by: mikem 02:47 pm EDT 08/21/20 | |
| In reply to: Question about the Rainbow Rainbow tweets quoted in THE ADVOCATE article - Michael_Portantiere 10:45 am EDT 08/21/20 | |
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| "In this case, I think it's safe to assume that RR is not in favor of segregation." Black and white cookies are a metaphor for racial harmony because they taste better if you keep both halves segregated/separated? If a white supremacist sent the black & white cookie tweet, there is no question it would be horribly offensive. I'm not sure it's less horrible because we don't think RR "means it." And do we know for sure he doesn't mean it? He doesn't want "black noise" in his building... Going by his many racially-charged tweets, I think the jury is out on that one. I think his defense in the article that the world was different in 2010 is quite telling. He says, "In 2010, we weren't anywhere near where we are now. Right now, systemic racism is killing people..." He doesn't seem to realize, even now, that systemic racism was killing people in 2010, too. It didn't start in 2016 when Trump got elected, which is what RR seems to think. |
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| re: Question about the Rainbow Rainbow tweets quoted in THE ADVOCATE article | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 03:55 pm EDT 08/21/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Question about the Rainbow Rainbow tweets quoted in THE ADVOCATE article - mikem 02:47 pm EDT 08/21/20 | |
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| ***Black and white cookies are a metaphor for racial harmony because they taste better if you keep both halves segregated/separated? If a white supremacist sent the black & white cookie tweet, there is no question it would be horribly offensive. I'm not sure it's less horrible because we don't think RR "means it."*** Right, that's sort of what I was getting out. I'm guessing that people were offended at the very fact that RR attempted to make a light (and arguably lame) "joke" about a deadly serious subject like segregation, even if they don't think he's in favor of it. |
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