Racist Rainbow — Page 8

I'm very conflicted about the "cancel culture" mentality - and just be clear, I'm referring specifically to the trend of ruining a career, severing ties, and encouraging others to do the same. I'm NOT referring to callouts, backlash, criticism, or calls for accountability, nor am I talking about individuals choosing not to support someone - I wholeheartedly support al of those things.

I actually do see some social value in a full-on cancellation, but I don't think it's always useful in every situation. I think "cancelation" (as I described above) is at its most useful when it happens to a celebrity who has an ongoing habit of using their status and position to exploit or degrade others. Because, by "cancelling" them, you are removing their power, and their platform, and thereby taking away the primary tools by which they do harm.

With RR, I just don't necessarily see the social value in cancelling him, because he has acknowledged his harm, taken accountability, and has changed his behavior (as evidenced by the fact that he hasn't tweeted anything offensive in years). I do agree his apology has issues, but it seems to me like he means what he says, even if he does a bit too much self-praising in the process. So cancelling him doesn't seem to be an outlet for harm-reductionist.


That said, I fully support people who feel that they can no longer derive enjoyment from his work because of this incident. I just don't necessarily see the value in ruining his career, and encouraging institutions or other individuals from severing ties with him.

I'm open to hearing arguments to the contrary though. Like I said, I'm very conflicted about issues like this, so I don't claim to say any of this with utter confidence. And in case it isn't 100% clear, I'm in no way trying to claim that his past behavior wasn't gross.

Updated On: 8/20/20 at 10:46 PM

Roseanne Barr was fired over a single statement that she apologized for. These unfortunate comments from Randy happened on many many many occasions. I think we all know what must happen here.

JBroadway said: "I'm very conflicted about the "cancel culture" mentality - and just be clear, I'm referring specifically to the trend of ruining a career, severing ties, and encouraging others to do the same. I'm NOT referring to callouts, backlash, criticism, or calls for accountability, nor am I talking about individuals choosing not to support someone - Iwholeheartedly support al of those things.

I actually do see some social value in a full-on cancellation,but I don't think it's always useful in every situation. I think "cancelation" (as I described above) is at its most useful when it happens to a celebrity who has an ongoing habit of using their status and position to exploit or degrade others. Because, by "cancelling" them, you are removing their power, and their platform, and thereby taking away the primary tools by which they doharm.

With RR, Ijust don't necessarily see the social value in cancelling him, because he has acknowledged his harm, taken accountability, and has changed his behavior (as evidenced by the fact that he hasn't tweeted anything offensive in years). I do agree his apology has issues, but it seems to me like he means what he says, even if he does a bit too much self-praisingin the process. So cancelling him doesn't seem to be an outlet forharm-reductionist.


That said, I fully support people who feel that they can no longer derive enjoyment from his work because of this incident. I just don't necessarily see the value in ruining his career, and encouraging institutions or other individuals from severing ties with him.

I'm open to hearing arguments to the contrary though. Like I said, I'm very conflicted about issues like this, so I don't claim to say any of this with utter confidence. And in case it isn't 100% clear, I'm in no way trying to claim that his past behavior wasn't gross."

I agree with your points. I also think we need to avoid a heavy-handed use of ‘cancel culture’ because social attitudes change over time and while conveniently right now cancel culture tends to align with a ‘progressive’ agenda, I don’t take for granted that if and when the moral value system changes over time to become more right-wing and people are being cancelled for things like their attitudes towards governments, good faith evaluation of religions, unusual gender/sexual expressions, academic or scientific outputs we are going to be in a very uncomfortable place indeed.

Randy Rainbow is already ‘cancelled’ for me because I never really enjoyed him in the first place so I couldn’t care less for me what happens to him. But if people are enjoying his work in 2020 my understanding is that it is at its best satirical and at its worst harmless fun so I don’t know why it needs to be ‘cancelled’ for everyone. It would be a totally different conversation if he posted the tweets yesterday and stubbornly tried to justify them.


I also find it interesting that right now there is a very simplistic binary on/off switch and apparently unless you hit the big off switch button as hard as possible it constitutes a ‘free pass’. There has to be something more complex in between.

Updated On: 8/21/20 at 03:25 AM

It seems pretty clear from this treasure trove of tweets that RRs muse circa 2010 wasn't Joan Rivers or Sarah Silverman but Lisa Lampinelli, a shock stand-up inexplicably popular with the gays who was fond of going on podcasts to say that it was her goal to be "one of the all-timers".

She has since quit the business and now works as a life coach.

This apology article started out okay, but then exposed his narcissism big time, going on about HIS SHOW, HIS EMMY NOMINATION, HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY and how there are people out there who are out to SILENCE HIM BECAUSE HE'S SUCH A POWERFUL VOICE.

Fare thee well, Randy. You're far from irreplaceable.

henrikegerman said: "Why do I get the feeling that a lot of people piling on Randy are Joan Rivers fans with very short memories?"

Joan Rivers is dead, I think? Some people here are absolutely horny to keep defending him.

Same As It Ever Was said: "Joan Rivers is dead, I think? Some people here are absolutely horny to keep defending him."

Joan Rivers was not above criticism, not even close. But her work had context. What was RR's context for his cavalcade of nasty, racist, hurtful "jokes"? Like I said, he was channeling Jackie Mason. What he said in those tweets was making a living by getting people to laugh at things at the expense of others. Why are you defending that? Unless you don't believe him, he says those things were horrible and make him sick. That leaves you defending the indefensible. We can discuss whether and to what extent he should be held to account for what he said then, but that does not travel through Joan Rivers et al. No one would have mentioned her if RR had not tried to aggrandize himself to the comparisons. It would be like Michael Riedel comparing himself to Murrow.

Okay, can we forget about his trans-insulting? Yes, Christian Seriano and SNL used the term "tranny" ten years ago too. That sorta buys him an excuse.

But the race based humor is and was HORRIBLE.

I don't believe him to be any more or less racist than the next gay. But. As People Of Color have been telling us lately--words themselves have power. We white apologists throw around the terms "context" and "intent" like they are Get Out of Jail Free cards. But our POC (especially black) brothers and sisters have pointed out again and again that that isn't true. Randy Rainbow said some truly racist sh*t and that isn't cool ten years or ten days ago.

I don't know what to do about him. But, oddly enough, as much as I wanted him to acknowledge and apologize, I found the apology so dishonest and self-aggrandizing that I was more sympathetic and supported him way more BEFORE it was issued!

Borstal! Remember how much Lisa Lumpagnelli used to make me SEETHE when queens on this board would tell me to "get over it" and "she's an equal-opportunity offender"? And, oh gosh, when I would not get on board with the Joan Rivers fandom... it caused some friction.

Bww is staying silent, as always. What is good, though? I will repeat my questions that I asked a few days ago:

So, Rob and the rest of the staff: You have a choice to make. When you proclaimed "Black Lives Matter", did you mean it? When you proclaim that you stand with LGBQIA+ people, did you mean it? If so, please don't pay, employ, or give a platform to a man that says racist, homophobic, Islamophobic, sexist, violent, horrifying statements that are not jokes.

Just clarifying since there have been a number of posts on this:

Randy has actually not been part of the BWW team for several years now. The videos that we’ve been running recently have been part of our “Rewind” series of re-airing older video content while the industry remains shutdown. We’ve taken his videos out of that series and agree with those here that these older, offensive tweets are inappropriate (both then and now).

Thanks Mods, appreciate your response and your removal of his videos.

CindersGolightly said: "Just popping in to say that all of you repeating the T slur (whether in defense of Rainbow or against him) are in the wrong as well. Unless you yourself are trans (I am not), you have no right to use or reclaim that word. Have a little respect. Also, once again, cancel culture does. not. exist. Everyone who believes it does is old as hell, apparently. Randy will become a NYT best seller when his book comes out, unfortunately. This isn't changing anything.

Anyway, BWW, what's good? Y'all decide to stop being hypocrites yet? Y'all gonna end your partnership with Randy? Or do black lives only matter when you're getting a pay cut?"

It's a conversation about a word that was used. I see no problem using it when discussing the use of the word by someone else. Nobody here is using it in an offensive way.

CindersGolightly said: "uncageg said: "It's a conversation about a word that was used. I see no problem using it when discussing the use of the wordby someone else. Nobody here is using it in an offensive way."

Please apply that same logic to the n word and realize how misguided this reasoning could be.

From my POV, it's easier and more respectful to everyone (especially the trans community) not to say a slur that was used. Slurs hold significant power and casually using it to quote someone is not something I (or many others) feel is okay or right.Saying the slur period is using it in an offensive way, whether you were quoting someone or inflicting violence upon them. I hope that made sense, and I say all of that with love.

And thank you Mods for your response, and your removal of Randy's videos."



I figured this would come up after my post.

Well, I am a black man. I have used the "N" word many times in conversations with people of many colors. And they have also used it in conversation with me. If it is a mature and intelligent conversation, it is no problem. If YOU have a problem saying it, that is fine. So in your world the reasoning is misguided, but not in mine or a lot of people I know.

Updated On: 8/22/20 at 06:32 PM