The Conners is Proof Racists are Replaceable

[TexasTowelie]

I started watching The Conners, the Roseanne spin-off minus Roseanne Barr herself, who was ousted from the show after her racist tirades on Twitter became too toxic for ABC to put up with no matter the ratings. Barr was given the boot, and the show carried on without her by killing her character off in an opioid overdose.

The Conners is… fine. It’s fine. It’s funny in places, full of pathos in others. I see more of myself in Sara Gilbert as Darlene now than I did when I watched her as a kid. There was a recent scene where she goes to work as a writer covering the dregs of humanity and has an argument with her editor about how much more it could be and I had to ask my wife to PLEASE STOP STARING AT ME LIKE THAT. The show is good and as comfortable as my two decade-old KISS farewell tour T-shirt.

You know what I like the best about it, though? It proves once and for all we just don’t need racists. They’re completely replaceable.

There’s this fixation I run into with conservatives on social media lately. They like to inflate their necessity to an absolute. In an argument with one Donald Trump supporter — before I made like a LEGO movie and blocked him — he said “who cares if a plumber is racist if he’s good at his job?” I do because there are tons of equally qualified plumbers out there who aren’t racist and would love to come fix my sink.

Read more: https://www.houstonpress.com/arts/the-conners-doesnt-need-roseanne-and-we-dont-need-racists-11061742

[Glamrock]

1. Oh man, that last paragraph.

Mid 20-s. First house. Need a new rubber roof. Have contractors out to give me estimates. This older white dude with a 50's greaser haircut shows up. He looks at the roof and points at the rubber that has been run over the siding instead of behind it. "Ya know why that's like that?", he asks. "No." Shit I'm like 25 and a factory worker. What the he'll do I know right? "N*****s did that." I was floored! Like, what is this like, '62? WTF is wrong with you? Damn lucky he met the 26 year old me instead of the current me. Although he realized his mistake, as I thanked him for his time and told him I'd call him before he got a chance to take measurement one. Unbelievable. Had he met current Glamrock, well, it'd be ugly bradda. I'd have berated him all the way out of my driveway and halfway down the goddamn street.

[murielm99]

2. I think we are all getting angrier.

I would have been stunned, but I think I would have acted like the 26 year old you. I would have thanked the guy, probably told him I did not hire racists, and gotten rid of him. I am seventy, and not up for a possible physical confrontation. But I would have spread the word to my friends, too, so they would not hire him.

I don't know for sure. I just don't know.