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Netflix Suspends Trans Employee Critical of Transphobic Tirade Hosted on Streaming Service

Danielle from Leaf and Core
Reading Time: 5 minutes.

Netflix logo, darkenedA comedian went on a transphobic tirade and called it comedy. Netflix hosted his comic special, where he mocked LGBTQIA+ people with vitriol. Normally, Netflix doesn’t allow outright displays of bigotry such as this, but, they paid a lot of money to have this special, they weren’t about to back down now. They decided to make an exception, because this time, bigotry was profitable.

In a year where, already, 38 transgender people have been killed in the U.S., just for being trans, Netflix has defended a bigoted tirade from one of their most popular comedians. After employees spoke up internally and were ignored, some took to Twitter. One of them, a transgender woman, highlighted the 38 trans people killed this year by transphobic violence. That violence is directly caused by hate speech like that Netflix is hosting.

Netflix suspended her and three other employees (so far).

To Netflix, hate speech is acceptable, as long as it’s just about LGBTQIA+ people and, perhaps most importantly, it’s profitable.

UPDATE: At least one employee (likely all three) reinstated. See below.

Another Hateful Special

Dave Chappelle has gotten flack for every one of his Netflix specials. He started out with a few smaller gay and transgender jokes, but went on to a full anti-trans tirade during his latest special. He even referred to himself as a TERF, a term for the loosely held together ideologies that basically come down to transphobia. While initially named after feminism, the biological determinism of transphobia lies counter to feminist ideology. Women aren’t defined by their parts or what they can give to a man (baby, intercourse, etc). While not an organized hate group, it is a hateful ideology, a loose collection of bigots.

That places Chappelle squarely outside of Netflix’s rules regarding hate and bigotry for its platform. Still, the special remains up on Netflix. Users and employees aren’t happy, especially since hate just like this has lead to what is looking to be the deadliest year for transgender people in the United States.

Spreading Hate

Hate speech is the precursor to violence. Any speech made to dehumanize and lessen empathy around a particular group of people for who they are is hate speech. That’s the goal of Dave Chappelle’s jokes, to lessen the humanity of transgender people and, to a lesser extent, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and otherwise queer people. When people mock these groups, it’s to lessen the barrier of entry to violence against them. That’s why most anti-LGBTQ assaults and hate crimes start with mocking a trans or gay person. The goal isn’t just to hurt them with vicious words, but to prepare themselves and their own group for violence against queer people.

It’s not just comedy, and Dave Chappelle knows that. In fact, that’s why he canceled himself back in the mid 2000’s. Chappelle was worried about the effect of his jokes about the Black community. What were supposed to be fun inside jokes had become stereotypes he saw white people parroting back. Imagine that, Dave, people outside of a marginalized group mocking it. How terrible that is. Now Chappelle is on the side of the very people he quit comedy for.

Dave quit his show, and comedy in general, for so long due to the negative connotations and stereotypes his jokes were leading to. Chappelle knows, better than most comedians, that jokes carry far more power than the ability to make us laugh. They carry culture and ideas that permeate through a society far more quickly than any speech could. Hate speech through jokes stick unlike any other form of hate speech. That’s why so much of it spreads on hateful social networks through memes and jokes.

So, knowing that, Dave Chappelle decided to spend a large portion—nearly half—of his standup attacking transgender people and aligning himself with the bigoted ideology of transphobia. Most of the victims of anti-trans hate crimes are Black trans women. Chappelle ignored these people.

His special was a clear violation of Netflix’s rules, and users and employees haven’t been happy. Unfortunately, Netflix has only stood up for hate.

Netflix Stands Up for Hate, Suspending Employees

A trans Netflix employee, Terra Field, spoke out against the hateful special on Twitter. Her post included a long line of reasoning for why this isn’t something that “offends,” the trans community, it’s something that puts them in danger. She did so by highlighting the 38 transgender people killed this year in the United States. We’re on track for the deadliest year for anti-trans hate crimes since organizations began tracking it in the early 2010’s. Along with the most anti-trans hateful legislation introduced in one year, everything from blocking health care for trans people, making discrimination legal, and blocking children’s participation in sports, 2021 has been one of the worst years on record for transgender people.

And, thanks to Netflix, it’s getting worse.

Netflix suspended Field, along with two of her colleagues.

Field’s tweet has gone viral, with over 43.9k likes and over 16k retweets. Netflix trended for the hate they’re spreading.

Netflix responded by claiming the obvious hate speech in Chappelle’s special didn’t break their rules.

This isn’t the first time Netflix has gone against the trans community. They have hosted transphobic work by Chappelle before, though none as egregious as his latest tirade. Disclosure was a documentary from Netflix about the trans community. However, according to Disclosure director Same Feder, Netflix “rented it for half the cost of what it cost to make it.” Meanwhile, they funded Chappelle’s hateful special and continue to support it.

The three Netflix employees attempted to reach out to executives, but were not only ignored, they were suspended when attempting to join a meeting they weren’t invited to. Netflix has silenced its employees on hate, and may just wait until the story dies down more to fire their biggest critics, rather than remove the bigotry from their platform (update: they reinstated these three, but fired another).

GLAAD, the National Black Justice Coalition, the HRC, and many other LGBTQIA+ organizations have spoken out and reached out to Netflix. Netflix has ignored all criticism. When asked if they ran Chappelle’s special past any transgender people before deciding to air it, Netflix finally chose silence.

Send Netflix a Message

 

As always, you’re not powerless. You likely have a Netflix subscription.

Cancel it.

Be sure to select the “Other” reason for why you canceled and let them know hate speech doesn’t deserve a platform, let alone the center stage they’ve given it. Even if it’s only for a few months, you can send a message to Netflix that this isn’t acceptable, one they’ll definitely hear. For a message that will likely be ignored, you can also tweet at them @Netflix, as well as their LGBTQIA+ account, @Most. Yes, really. Despite being okay with anti-LGBTQIA+ hate speech on their platform, they’re still trying to pander to the group. It’s “rainbow capitalism” in action.

You don’t have to be silent. After all, you’re likely not a Netflix employee.

UPDATE:

What’s most interesting about this update is that it almost sounds like employees were baited into joining this meeting. The link was shared with them by a director. That’s an invite in our remote work world. You don’t just send people links. The fact that anyone was suspended when it’s clear that this wasn’t a case of any actual wrongdoing, says far more about Netflix’s actual intentions here.

Employees are worried to speak up about vile bigotry they’re promoting, and that’s exactly what Netflix wanted.

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