The controversy swells around Dave Chappelle since the release of his last one-man-show, The Closer. Here's why Netflix employees are about to go on strike.
Some remarks made in Dave Chappelle's last show do not pass. Provocation calculated to create buzz or real transphobia? A passage from his show in which the comedian gives his opinion on the question of gender has earned him strong criticism emanating, in particular, from the community LGBT . Some Netflix employees have planned to go on strike to express their dissatisfaction and request the withdrawal of the one-man-show.
When it comes to transphobia, the most controversial person is undoubtedly J.K. Rowling. Once considered a model of wisdom, the author of Harry Potter has alienated many of her fans following tweets and transphobic statements, without nuance and repeated .
An attitude that has earned her the status of being considered a TERF, for Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist:a feminist who excludes transgender people from her fight . Bad luck, it was J.K. Rowling that Dave Chappelle chose to defend in The Closer . Taking the author's recent statements as an example, Dave Chappelle said:
Further, the comedian adds that TERFs “see trans women like black people see black faces, like,“Oooh this bitch is impersonating me, it offends me'”; before claiming membership of “Team TERF ”.
Unsurprisingly, this excerpt was not to everyone's taste, even within Netflix. The day after the show was released, Tera Field, a transgender engineer working for this company, had a thread explaining why the one-man show is problematic .
“Promote the TERF ideology (which we did by giving it a platform yesterday), directly hurts trans people, it is not a neutral act ”, she says in particular in her post.
Very quickly, the thread went viral.. but that didn't stop Ted Sarandos, the co-CEO of Netflix, from defending the comedian and saying:“Although some employees are not okay, we strongly believe that this on-screen content has no real-world negative repercussions. ” A rather astonishing statement from a senior official of a reputedly very progressive company.
Obviously, The Closer is gone to stay on the platform. The controversy is therefore not deflating at Netflix headquarters and, according to the Los Angeles Times , several employees are planning to go on strike sometime next week. Perhaps this will allow Netflix to better see the impact of the statements of its protege.
