Racist Rainbow- Page 2

[Same As It Ever Was]

Posted: 8/18/20 at 8:47pm

this you?

[Moderator]

Posted: 8/18/20 at 8:49pm

There have been a number of people who have reported this thread, but at this time, we do not feel it is appropriate to take it down. Discussing a public figures past comments is not an attack, and as ErmengardeStopSniveling mentioned, it is newsworthy. So, as long as posts stay on topic and do not attack people, we will allow this conversation to continue. 

However, we have removed a number of posts that violated the board's rules for the various reasons mentioned above. Feel free to comment on the Twitter posts, their importance, the reaction to them, etc., but please do not attack others. 

Thank you all, and have a good night. 

[Same As It Ever Was]

Posted: 8/18/20 at 8:54pm

Will BroadwayWorld be ending its association with him?

Updated On: 8/18/20 at 08:54 PM

[orlikethecolorpurple]

Posted: 8/18/20 at 9:05pm

Jordan Catalano said: "Please post links to all your social media from a decade ago as well, so we can compare."

That's such a lame and unimaginative response. If the OP was a celebrity (or niche-industry-celebrity-adjacent as it were), their social media would be up for discussion. The difference is they likely never posted racist and transphobic **** that wouldn't have been funny even 8-10 years ago. Regardless of how our lexicon may have changed, it was never funny to make marginalized people the punchline in bad jokes.

Also, hot take: Rainbow is NOT funny. Give me Cole Escola any day. 

[CT2NYC]

Posted: 8/18/20 at 9:23pm

Here's an actual article, to show that the OP isn't the only one talking about this:

https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/randy-rainbow-tweets/

 

Updated On: 8/18/20 at 09:23 PM

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 8/18/20 at 9:26pm

>that wouldn't have been funny even 8-10 years ago. Regardless of how our lexicon may have changed, it was never funny to make marginalized people the punchline in bad jokes.

Listen, I don't like Randy Rainbow, I never have but it's kind of silly to say it was 'NEVER FUNNY!' to make marginalized people for bad jokes because it was... people made millions of dollars off insensitive jokes. You may not find it funny, neither do I, but he was largely reflecting the comedy world at the time. That he's not taking ownership and accountability for the statements is the problem, not that he ever made them. He's ****ing idiot for never actually get rid of them...

Updated On: 8/18/20 at 09:26 PM

[SouthernCakes]

Posted: 8/18/20 at 10:02pm

I mean, didn’t everyone get cancelled for stuff they did awhile ago? I mean one of my “Bravoleberties” got straight up cancelled for something that happened like 2 years ago.

Cancel culture is weird.

Comedy is ever evolving. You use to be able to say that stuff. Just not anymore.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 8/18/20 at 10:09pm

Exactly. There are real racists and homophobes out there and then there are comedians who said stuff a long time ago that’s not acceptable now, that people want to try to destroy. There’s a big difference.

[jesse benet]

Posted: 8/18/20 at 10:16pm

It really is astonishing that celebs+public figures don't think to just.... automatically go back and delete any social posts pre-2015. You'd think the current culture would have people thinking "huh... I've probably said ****ty hurtful things on the internet in the past that don't need to be floating around." 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 8/18/20 at 10:18pm

^ Very true.

[SouthernCakes]

Posted: 8/18/20 at 10:25pm

But they shouldn’t have to! It’s about context. It’s like when HBO pulled “Gone With the Wind.” No one wants to do any research or even think for a second, they just want to cancel everything without putting it in the context of the time in which it was said/written/produced.

I think cancel culture is stupid. I’m sure we have all said or done something we regret or maybe posted and people are just so quick to cancel instead of educate.

Honestly, the only thing I find offensive about his Tweets is how unfunny it all is.

[Same As It Ever Was]

Posted: 8/18/20 at 10:26pm

This is a lot of somethings, though. 

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 8/18/20 at 10:50pm

If people need a collection of links that aren't embedded in a DailyDot story, here you go:

https://twitter.com/robbedsettos/status/1295501225593647105

 

Meanwhile, someone on All That Chat is saying this is a right-wing takedown. LOL.

https://www.talkinbroadway.com/allthatchat_new/d.php?id=2495163

[JSquared2]

Posted: 8/18/20 at 11:29pm

Same As It Ever Was said: "JSquared2 said: "And your point for posting tweets that are 10 years old is??

To be fair, if he were a black man making gay jokes you wouldn’t care how old the tweets were.

"

Wanna bet?

[uncageg]

Posted: 8/19/20 at 12:02am

Jordan Catalano said: "Exactly. There are real racists and homophobes out there and then there are comedians who said stuff a long time ago that’s not acceptable now, that people want to try to destroy. There’s a big difference."

Jordan, I usually agree with you but on this, from a black perspective, I don't. These things were said within the past 10 years. The chicken joke and Oreo joke would have been quite offensive then. Even 5 or 10 years before. Plus, they don't come off as "comedy".  And I will say it, especially from a flamboyant gay white male.  I think that makes it a bit worse. And coming from someone in a community that has had to fight for acceptance and rights.

A number of years ago I read something he said and it really put me off.  He fell off my radar until this past year. I still could not remember why I was not crazy about him but watched the videos they post here. These tweets jogged my memory although I don't remember exactly what it was he said. I just remember now that I didn't care for something he said that was off color and a bit offensive.

And yes Same As It Ever Was I think we would care, if they were anything like these tweets.

JMO

 

[joevitus]

Posted: 8/19/20 at 12:16am

jesse benet said: "It really is astonishing that celebs+public figures don't think to just.... automatically go back and delete any social posts pre-2015. You'd think the current culture would have people thinking "huh... I've probably said ****ty hurtful things on the internet in the past that don't need to be floating around.""

Knowing the insanity of some internet folks, and that tweets etc. that are taken down still resurface as screen-grabs, likely they figure it isn't worth the effort: someone recorded it to use against them, and it will come out anyway.

[joevitus]

Posted: 8/19/20 at 12:23am

JSquared2 said: "Same As It Ever Was said: "JSquared2 said: "And your point for posting tweets that are 10 years old is??

To be fair, if he were a black man making gay jokes you wouldn’t care how old the tweets were.

"

Wanna bet?"

Same response goes for this gay man. To go further back, Eddie Murphy's stand-up was homophobic even for it's time, but the last thing I have the time or energy for is to get indigent about routines that are so ancient, they have to compete with VCRs and CD players and the days of one channel per cable network for a place in my memory. 

I'll deal with what's actually happening now, thank you very much, and not worry about something that happened long ago. If these people have changed/stopped making said jokes, great, that's a win. If they haven't, there are current routines you can point to. 

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 8/19/20 at 12:24am

uncageg is right.

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 8/19/20 at 12:32am

These “jokes” are both offensive and enormously unfunny. And yeah, they’re really racist. Like blatantly racist. Yikes.

[BenjaminNicholas2]

Posted: 8/19/20 at 12:57am

And cue millennial pearl-clutching.

I'm black AND asian.  This does not offend me. I have to care about you for you to offend me.

 

Calm down kids.

[uncageg]

Posted: 8/19/20 at 2:08am

BenjaminNicholas2 said: "And cue millennial pearl-clutching.

I'm black AND asian. This does not offend me. I have to care about you for you to offend me.



Calm down kids."

 

Well good for you. I am black with a bit of American Indian in my blood. And not a millennial.

I will calm down if you can get in a time machine and go back and take care of/erase the following for me:

De-segregate my home town in the 60's and 70's

Being denied or ignored because of my skin color through the 90's and beyond

Being ignored by member's of the gay community because of my color, even now. 

Being called the "N" word from the 70's right up to this past year. Once by an older Jewish man and a middle aged white woman. On my job. Right to my face. This past year.

I am calm on the outside. I have to be. But I do stay woke, in its true definition, on the inside.

 

Also, thank you LizzieCurry!

Updated On: 8/19/20 at 02:08 AM

[CindersGolightly]

Posted: 8/19/20 at 2:20am

"This doesn't offend me so it shouldn't offend you" is literally such a stupid argument. I don't care if any of y'all are still willing to blindly support this very unfunny man, but this behavior has gone unchecked long enough and I'm tired of white people (ESPECIALLY white, physically fit gay men) getting a free "racist past" pass. Randy Rainbow is 39. The eldest of these tweets were written when he was 29 and onward. If by 29 you don't understand that these tweets are wrong, you should not have a platform. And his refusal to own up and apologize (literally the bare minimum) just further proves to me, a 23 year old half black gay man, that he is beyond the point where he can change this behavior. 

Also, it's not as if he hasn't had problematic tweets in 2020. Like. His behavior is very clearly the same as it was ten years ago.

Would love to hear if BroadwayWorld is planning to end their partnership with him, and if not, why? Why not give his (uninspired) Patti LuPone series to someone without a racist past?

Updated On: 8/19/20 at 02:20 AM

[binau]

Posted: 8/19/20 at 3:56am

I find some of those jokes a little extreme but I guess I wonder what the next steps should be. I have no doubt that some in woke American culture would be happy if he never worked again and lived a life of poverty, depression and despair - which seems disproportionate to the social crime of posting racist jokes 10 years ago that by the looks of it were barely ever read/noticed by the public at the time.

I hope he could just apologise and we move on. The problem is like the ‘Barbara Streisand effect’ by actually acknowledging these tweets and apologising he risks bringing these to the attention of a wider audience, greater increasing the likelihood he is now going to never work again.
 

Updated On: 8/19/20 at 03:56 AM

[CindersGolightly]

Posted: 8/19/20 at 4:17am

qolbinau said: "The problem is like the ‘Barbara Streisand effect’ by actually acknowledging these tweets and apologising he risks bringing these to the attention of a wider audience, greater increasing the likelihood he is now going to never work again."

I know you want him to apologize (as said earlier in this message), so this isn't meant to be an attack on you of any kind, but I do want to say: if he's more worried about his career than the people he hurt with these tweets, he really hasn't changed at all from ten years ago.

I also want to say that this is the price of being racist. Even if we want to buy the "racist jokes doesn't equal racist person" narrative - which let's be clear, having these thoughts in the first place IS inherently a racist act - he should still be held responsible.

I don't want him to live a life of poverty. But cancel culture does not exist. Especially not for white gay men. He will continue to get Emmy nominations, he will continue to thrive. I just really would like him to receive SOME form of consequences for his abhorrent actions and words. And I think it would be a disgrace (and very telling) for BroadwayWorld to let him off scot-free. Especially after their comment on this thread. I really hope they didn't say that just to be performative.

[joevitus]

Posted: 8/19/20 at 4:32am

CindersGolightly said: ""This doesn't offend me so it shouldn't offend you" is literally such a stupid argument."

No more stupid than "It does offend me so it should offend you, too."

And if he's still making comments like this, why bother with outdated ones when there are current ones you could point to? 

While BenjaminNicholas2 may be wrong to assume the people upset are Millennials, I think he's right to see this as a very Millennial-style form of outrage. Some people of other generations are easily outraged, as well. I don't consider that a compliment.