Racist Rainbow — Page 6

Kad said: "Questioning how these tweets came to be rediscovered is beside the point. They're there. They're his words. This is not in doubt and cannot be argued. And it wasn't a one-time lapse of judgment. It was dozens and dozens, over years- it was, in effect, his comedic style. Yes, they were from before he became known and somewhat of the time and he has since abandoned that comedic dead-end road.

But all of those factors seem to me to create a perfect opening for an apology that would probably be readily accepted- a disavowal of his past, making credible claims of having changed, a commitment to do better, something something. But he has not made one. His response has been since-deleted indignation, and then to purge his Twitter of everything but the most contemporary content (somewhat baffling, since folks know how to keep the receipts for this stuff).

The reaction and lack thereof speaks is... very telling."



I agree with the exception of them being "of the time". 10 years was not long ago. It was not politically correct to make these kind of jokes at that time and as I mentioned earlier, even before that.

And as for people saying they were a long time ago and why would someone dig them up. They are there. And as Kad pointed out, they were his words. I sometimes feel that people feel they are in this online bubble and when they post things they think only those they want to see them do and forget that their words are pretty much out there for the world to see.

His response, that I guess has been taken down, also spoke volumes. What is really getting me is as I read comments on different platforms, people are supporting him. And I would suspect a lot of them were the same people supporting BLM and anti racism. So how is this different?

Your move, Broadway World.

LizzieCurry said: "Hey, I'm really sorry about all this.I said some terrible things several years ago about several marginalized communities, and shamefully, even just a few years ago. Either way, they were not the right thing to think or say.I also apologize for my recent silence and online behavior.

^ If you need a start, Randy, I'm giving it to you. No charge."

You would think it would be that easy. Find no response at this point to be quite odd.

I can't imagine him coming back online with the excuse so many others use. "I've been hacked."

Updated On: 8/20/20 at 01:23 PM

MODS: Thank you for restoring Randy Rainbow's "Kamala" parody to the sidebar.

uncageg said: "I agree with the exception of them being "of the time". 10 years was not long ago. It was not politically correct to make these kind of jokes at that time and as I mentioned earlier, even before that."

I did couch it with "somewhat" and I do agree it was never appropriate- but ten years ago, a lot of young white gay guys were taken with comparing themselves to black women and tossing around the word tr*nny. And that's still true, though less overtly. Usually. Ten years both is and isn't a long time in pop culture.

Updated On: 8/20/20 at 02:02 PM

CarlosAlberto said: "Dude wasclearly milkshake ducked.

For those not familiar with the term:

Milkshake Duckis anInternet memethat describes phenomena that are initially perceived as positive but later revealed to be flawed.Oxford Dictionariesdefined the term as "a person or character on social media that appears to be endearing at first, but is found to have an unappealing back story",but did not consider usage of the neologism to be sufficiently long-lived or widespread to warrant inclusion in their dictionaries.The term has been connected to "cancel culture", a perceived trend ofcall-out cultureon social media resulting in celebrities being ostracized and careers abruptly derailed by publicized misconduct.["

I think Randy's rise to prominence was too gradual for this to be considered a Milkshake Duck. I think that term would be more appropriate if we all heard of Randy Rainbow for the first time last week, then found out this week about his tweets.

Jordan Catalano said: "^Kad said it better than I tried to before when people got upset with me."



Just to let you know, I wasn't upset with you. I just didn't agree with part of what you said.

I tend to side with Kad's view of the situation. This was clearly some clueless comic persona he was creating at the time and attempting to use racial humor. It reminds me of the trouble Sarah Silverman got in while using racial slurs to make points about racism (see her bit about trying to get out of jury duty). And yes...that slur for trans people was in vogue in the Aughties and the early Twenty-Teens. One of Christian Siriano's catchphrases on his season of Project Runway was 'hot t*anny mess.' Many of the other designers started using it and it was all so 'funny'. LOTS of people were saying that back then. And then they stopped because it became apparent that it was a super gross phrase.

All of this to say that this is the EASIEST disavowal and apology to issue and it still hasn't come out.

So, in the discussion that certain things were considered acceptable or mainstream even a decade or so ago that aren’t now, I always use this SNL sketch of Amy Poehler doing Christian Siriano and the whole “Tr*nny Fierce” thing that we all heard for years afterwards. Just an example that yes, mainstream comedy (of which I suppose Randy was or aspired to be back then) used some of those words and it wasn’t widely considered bad to do, at the time.

SNL Sketch