I don’t understand the media frenzy over Isaiah Washington gay-bashing co-worker TR Knight, mostly because I don’t understand we expect celebrities to live up to a higher standard than everyone else.
You could make the argument that celebrities, by virtue of being in the public eye, are inherently supposed to be role models (an argument which I would reject), but even if that’s true, that would only account for what their behavior is like when they’re in the public eye. Washington didn’t call his co-worker a faggot in a national magazine, on a TV interview, in a public place … he said it on the closed set of their TV show. Which doesn’t excuse it. It just means … well, it’s really none of the rest of our business. A friend made the argument last night that it probably didn’t contribute to a good working environment for the cast — well, sure. But that’s kind of the show’s producer’s thing to worry about, isn’t it? I mean, if they want to fire Washington, fine. That could be a reasonable course of action. But why does everyone feel like that’s the general public’s decision to make at all?
People do not necessarily become good people just by virtue of being a celebrity. Just as their are homobigoted office managers and policemen and school teachers and scientists and grocery store clerks out there, some celebrities are probably going to be racist or sexist or intolerant, too. Do we really all expect them to be paragons of tolerance just because they’re on TV?
And then there’s everyone’s reaction to his repeating the word faggot at an awards ceremony last week.
“No, I did not call (co-star) T.R. (Knight) a faggot,” Washington told reporters. “Never happened, never happened.”
This is, according to other cast members, patently untrue. So, okay, find fault with him for lying. But people seem to be finding fault with him for the public use of the word faggot. My friend argued last night that it was completely inexcusable for him to repeat the word, especially at the golden globes ceremony (hallowed ground, apparently). Um, what was he supposed to say? “The F-word?” (I think that implies something else).
Via Julian Sanchez, a Texas mayor proposes a ban that would make using the word nigger illegal and punishable by fine, no matter in what context the word is used.
Says Mayor Corley: “The word is not used or abused in the streets of our town; it’s more, amongst the black community, as a term of endearment, OK? … But it is a national issue, and I would like the city of Brazoria to take a leadership role throughout the nation in banning the use of this word.”
… ugh. words are not just, like, these completely object things with unilateral intent and meaning. they derive their power and meaning from context.
So back to Washington, I’m not saying that what he said is excusable, or that he wasn’t wrong, or that people shouldn’t be offended by his intolerance, or feel negatively about Washington now. I just don’t understand why everyone is always so SHOCKED when a celebrity acts in an intolerant way. Especially when we don’t hold are politicians to the same standard ….
Making celebrity bad behavior into a media frenzy like this doesn’t really serve any purpose, as far as I can see, except to have celebrities then go on a disingenuous apology tour while the initial offense gets repeated over and over and over …. the same magazines chastising Washington for his repeated use of the word in his denial of ever using it are now positively bursting with faggot headlines …
I think a celeb is more apt to say something just because it’s outrageous to get the publicity.
I’m actually a Native American, but I look white. I get offended when I see other ethnic groups do things that if I, as a red or white person, would get a lot of flack over, and I’m told it’s humor.
For example – the movie White Chicks. It’s about 2 African American men who dress up as white women for some sort of undercover operation. Now, just what would have happened if instead of the men – the Wayans who are black and dressed as white women – what if it were say Seinfeld and Jason Alexander who are white, dressing up as black women? Every single NAACP chapter would be filing a law suit.
Why is it ok for African American commedians to make fun of whites, but not whites to make fun of African Americans without risking multimillion dollar lawsuits and ruining their careers?
Speaking of NAACP, if there was a National Association for the Advancement of White People – NAAWP – there would be all hell to pay.
While I was in college, I was “treated” to a lecture of why I, as a white woman, owed this african american woman all sorts of things. I very quietly told her… so your people were slaves. At least they didn’t kill them because of their color like they did my people. She looked at me like I had just grown 6 heads, even after I explained that I am not white, I am Native American. I guess another facet of history escaped – the fact that “Indians” were killed because they were Indians – Sherman’s “The only good indian is a dead indian”, and those that weren’t killed were forced to either live in abject poverty or denounce their heritage. Up until 1964, “Indians” weren’t even permitted an education on the reservation – they had to leave it to get education either by going to boarding school where boys’ hair was kept short, children were beaten when they spoke in their tribal tongue, and children were forbidden to practice their tribal beliefs. Don’t forget the Trail of Tears, and the Indian Wars. Would that my ancestors could have been slaves. Many other Native Americans would not be quite so poor, or quite so dependent on drugs and alcohol. My family gave up their heritage a couple generations ago, but we never took the blood money.