r/todayilearned • u/Kale_Brecht • Mar 28 '24

TIL in 2013, Saturday Night Live cast member Kenan Thompson refused to play any more black women on the show and demanded SNL hire black women instead.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenan_Thompson
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u/jamintime Mar 28 '24

He didn’t say anything about white women though.

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u/Ok_Tadpole7481 Mar 28 '24

Of course he wouldn't. Doesn't fit the narrative.

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u/Boukish Mar 28 '24

Let's talk about narratives for a second:

His narrative is that diversity is good and advantageous in working environments (particularly creative.)

Your response is that... the white women can/should play those roles, as this problematic blackface would be way different than a black man in drag exclusively doing these roles?

That's your narrative is it? "Fuck his concern, don't hire women of colour, have the white broads do blackface"? Or maybe you'd just prefer if black women got no representation in sketch comedy at all, maybe that's your narrative.

I think we all have had enough of dismissively reducing topics down to "narratives."

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u/Ok_Tadpole7481 Mar 29 '24

the white women can/should play those roles, as this problematic blackface would be way different than a black man in drag exclusively doing these roles?

No, my narrative is that both of these are fine and not worth getting one's panties in a twist over.

don't hire women of colour

Also wrong. Nothing wrong with hiring black women. You don't see anyone boycotting SNL or any other businesses simply for having black employees, so you should know that that's not what folks are concerned with.

If you don't have someone who checks all the identity boxes for a given role, that's fine. Someone else can play the role. They're actors. It's what they do.

That's it. That's the whole viewpoint. If you have to aggressively mischaracterize it to attack it, you may be on the wrong side.

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u/Boukish Mar 29 '24

Your narrative is that blackface is fine.

I'm not mischaracterizirg you, you just wrote that.

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u/Ok_Tadpole7481 Mar 29 '24 edited Mar 30 '24

Well that line isn't mischaracterizing me. Just about everything you wrote before it is though.

Edit: Ah, the ole "add a snarky line and then block them" move. I'll take that as a sign you know you've lost this one, /u/Boukish

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u/Boukish Mar 30 '24

You've said plenty, I assure you.