Netflix employees staged a walkout on Wednesday after Dave Chappelle made “transphobic comments” in his special “The Closer”. In his last special for Netflix, Dave Chappelle declared himself to be ‘Team TERF’ while defending Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.
Chappelle, asserting that Gender is a fact, said, “Every human being in this room, every human being on earth, had to pass through the legs of a woman to be on earth. That is a fact.” The special was littered with other jokes around similar issues as well.
The special has incensed the ‘Woke’ camp and ‘Woke’ employees at Netflix staged a walkout in protest. They are demanding that the streaming platform hire “transgender/nonbinary” people to executive roles and create a fun to support talents from these groups.
The walkout has received a great deal of support from people in the entertainment industry. Elliot Page, an actor who was known as Ellen Page before coming out as transgender, came out in support of the Netflix employees. She said, “I stand with the trans, nonbinary, and BIPOC employees at Netflix fighting for more and better trans stories and a more inclusive workplace.”
Lilly Wachowski of The Matrix fame, a transgender herself, said, “If you’re not standing up for trans lives, you need to take a good look at who you ARE standing with.” Comic Wanda Sykes stated, “Standing in solidarity with the Netflix employees speaking truth to power today and sending my full love and support.”
The protesters and their supporters are accusing Dave Chappelle of contributing to “real life hate” towards transgenders and people from the LGBT community.
I am here at the #NetflixWalkout. As a non-binary filmmaker who has helped create over 30 hours of Emmy winning original documentaries for @netflix, I will not stay quiet.
— Vishal P. Singh (they/he) (@VPS_Reports) October 20, 2021
The damage done by #DaveChappelle’s transphobia is consistent and it translates to real world hate. pic.twitter.com/NxwO3MLyUW
Transparent Creator Joey Soloway said, “This is gender violence. Sharing his outrage as comedic humiliation in front of thousands of people, and then broadcasting it to hundreds of millions of people, is infinitely amplified gender violence… I want trans representation on the Netflix board. A trans person on the f-ing Netflix board this fucking week.”
Actor Dan Levy said on the matter, “I stand with every employee at Netflix using their voice to ensure a safe and supportive work environment. I’ve seen firsthand how vital television can be when it comes to influencing the cultural conversation. That impact is real and works both ways: positively AND negatively. Transphobia is unacceptable and harmful. That isn’t a debate.”
LGBT rights group GLAAD also came out in support of the Netflix walkout.
Netizens slam the Netflix Walkout
Not everyone had good things to say about the Netflix walkout. Some said that it was an attempt by a “sensitive group” to ‘cancel’ a successful Black man.
#NetflixWalkout Is about a sensitive group trying to cancel a successful black man, that's basically what this is.
— McKayla J (@McKaylaRoseJ) October 20, 2021
Others said that Netflix employees had not bothered to stage a walkout when the streaming platform screened Cuties, a movie with overt pedophile inclinations, but were staging a walkout over a comedy special.
Employees at Netflix have staged a protest outside of their job because they hate opinionated black men.
— pixelnog (@pixelnog) October 20, 2021
Notice Netflix trans employees didn't do the same when Netflix published cuties, a movie with obvious pedophile undertones. #NetflixWalkout pic.twitter.com/pwCTu73X2w
Remember the Netflix movie “Cuties”-
— ✨🎃The Honey Badger🎃✨ (@Nance726) October 20, 2021
You know, the about scantly clad little girls, bending over, grinding and air humping?
Netflix employees:
Silence
Comedian tells jokes:
Sheer outrage.
These are not serious people.
#NetflixWalkout
Counter-protesters at the site responded to “Trans Lives Matter” chants with “We like jokes” slogans.
At today’s Netflix walkout, where “trans lives matter” chants are going up against Chappelle supporters shouting “I like jokes” pic.twitter.com/eX1qHgdj7R
— Kirsten Chuba (@KirstenChuba) October 20, 2021
The Dave Chappelle Comedy Special controversy: What CEO Ted Sarandos said
Earlier, the streaming platform had fired an employee for leaking confidential information regarding the Dave Chappelle special. It said in a statement, “We have let go of an employee for sharing confidential, commercially sensitive information outside the company. We understand this employee may have been motivated by disappointment and hurt with Netflix, but maintaining a culture of trust and transparency is core to our company.”
CEO Ted Sarandos, in a letter to a select bunch of employees, defended the special. He said, “Chappelle is one of the most popular stand-up comedians today, and we have a long standing deal with him. … As with our other talent, we work hard to support their creative freedom — even though this means there will always be content on Netflix some people believe is harmful, like Cuties, 365 Days, 13 Reasons Why or My Unorthodox Life.”
““I recognize, however, that distinguishing between commentary and harm is hard, especially with stand-up comedy which exists to push boundaries. Some people find the art of stand-up to be mean-spirited but our members enjoy it, and it’s an important part of our content offering,” he added.
In a letter a few days later, Ted Sarandos said that “content on screen doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm.” “The strongest evidence to support this is that violence on screens has grown hugely over the last thirty years, especially with first party shooter games, and yet violent crime has fallen significantly in many countries,” he said in that particular letter before adding, “Adults can watch violence, assault and abuse — or enjoy shocking stand-up comedy — without it causing them to harm others.”
Later, however, Sarandos claimed that he had “screwed up” but reaffirmed his belief that the comedy special was consistent with the content Netflix has to offer. “When we think about this challenge we have to entertain the world, part of that challenge means that you’ve got audiences with various taste, various sensibilities, various beliefs. You really can’t please everybody or the content would be pretty dull,” he stated.
Ted Sarandos added, “I do think that the inclusion of the special on Netflix is consistent with our comedy offering, it’s consistent with Dave Chappelle’s comedy brand, and this is … one of those times when there’s something on Netflix that you’re not going to like.”
