I was one of the liberal snowflakes who cheered when Roseanne got her cushy ABC sitcom snatched away for using old-school ethnic slurs for the millionth time. I woke up today to a Twitter firestorm over Samantha Bee (of Full Frontal with fame) referring to Ivanka Trump as a "feckless [redacted]" in a recent episode. The redacted word was the c-word, in case you don't know.
Naturally, conservatives are calling for her termination and the cancellation of her show, because, in their eyes, to let the comment slide would be a double standard. Here are my thoughts, from a 20-year-old idiot whom you did not ask!
First of all, we can't really call it a double standard even nominally. Bee and Barr are coming from two different networks, TBS and ABC, respectively. ABC is one of the biggest broadcasting corporations in the world. TBS, while obviously extremely powerful, doesn't have the same clout. More to the point, ABC's programming is usually marketed more towards families and universal audiences, while TBS's content--at least its original programming--is usually adult-oriented, and rarely has the sanitized, people-pleasing vibe as ABC. To that end, the Roseanne reboot was a sitcom, and Full Frontal is a comedy news show in the style of The Daily Show and Last Week Tonight, both of which have long been known for coarse language and political controversy--frankly, it's part of their branding. But perhaps the most important point to be made in the discussion about technicalities is that Bee used that phrase during her show, as part of a scripted comedy act in an exaggerated persona, while Barr's horrific commentary was presented on her own time, on her own Twitter account, where she is, ostensibly, her real self.
Now that those topics are out of the way, let's address the severity of the comments themselves. Barr's slurs were issued in a conspiracy theory Twitter thread with some of her equivalently unhinged followers. From what I can gather, the thread was more about far-right political lunacy than outright racism, but Barr decided to kick it up a notch and make what she called a "joke" in "bad taste," describing Valerie Jarrett, a former Obama aide, as an ape. There are loads of articles on the history of these racist comparisons--white people calling black people apes is nothing new--but suffice it to say, this comment was more than just a dogwhistle. It was practically a mission statement. Channing Dungey, the current and first black American president of ABC, did not stand for it. There's a lot to unpack about why Dungey would even allow Roseanne a platform in the first place (most likely that her bigotry could be tolerated until it interfered with the bottom line), but that's not what I'm here to talk about.
Bee's comments were, as I mentioned earlier, a part of a tirade against Ivanka Trump for not doing more to affect her father's policymaking. She was specifically critical of the younger Trump's hypocrisy; on the campaign trail, she frequently spoke of her intention to support mothers and children, and to give the older Trump her opinion when she felt it was necessary to his political actions. In light of the horrors perpetrated by ICE against immigrant families, Ivanka's true alignment is rendered in perfect clarity: it's her family she wants to protect, and families like hers. Not poor ones, and not brown ones. This isn't new information, but after she posted this absolutely "tone deaf' tweet, it reminded all of us how much she could be doing, and how much she's letting everyone down. Bee criticized her for posting the photo ("that's a beautiful photo of you and your child, but let me just say, from one mother to another, do something about your dad's immigration practices, you feckless c***!") and made jokes about the President's unhealthy, seemingly sexual obsession with his own daughter ("put on something tight and low-cut and tell your father to f***ing stop it").
Looking at the controversial quotes in context, it's easy for me to make my mind. The two are not equivalent. We're kidding ourselves if we think they are. Bee and Barr are both comedians, but "comedy" is not a catch-all excuse for every time a professional stand-up gets themselves into hot water. Barr's comments were made on her own time, lack critical thinking and nuance, rely on old-hat racism, and are coming from a place of ignorance and hatred. Bee's comments, on the other hand, were made for a network, for a specific purpose, and contain the one-two punch of shock value and intelligent critique (note the use of the word "feckless"--had she merely called Trump a c*** the joke would have considerably less merit) that turn a simple schoolyard taunt into a solid political burn.
Bee using the c-word on her television show was definitely a risk. The risk is reminiscent of when black people use the n-word. In trying to reclaim it, in leveling against one another in endearment or in insult, marginalized communities are gambling on their own degradation, i.e. the possibility of another community co-opting the word and using it for its original intention. All of this is to say: there are definitely male comedians (and men in other professions) who will probably point to Bee and say that if she can use it, anyone can. And they'd be wrong, but they'd probably still make the point.
I stand with Samantha Bee, and I stand with TBS, and I stand with ABC for firing Roseanne and canceling her pandering, pathetic reboot. Here's hoping she's not any ballots any time soon.
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