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In reply to the discussion: How Bout This, Tina Fey: Give Us (Black People) the Sheet Cake, and You Go Confront the White Women [View all]Music Man
(1,184 posts)Ultimately, with regards to race relations and the status of neo-Nazis, you and I want the same things. Let's please not lose sight of that.
But remember that Tina Fey's humor has long revolved around making fun of her emotional immaturity, overeating, etc. Much of her "30 Rock" persona involved her being a liberal but not always being informed. She is quite self-aware, and her comedy is marked with nuanced layers.
Anyone who thinks she was LITERALLY advocating that people should only shout into cake to confront racism needs Closed Captioning for the Humor Impaired. What I don't understand is why you and others immediately attribute her joking about ignoring neo-Nazis to her whiteness (and thus white privilege) instead of her having a color-less belief that the best way to snuff these people out is by not giving them oxygen. If you are of the belief that sunshine is the best disinfectant, then that's a specific disagreement about political tactics. One might say, "If you were black, you'd know that we can't afford to ignore neo-Nazis. It's literally life and death." The implication is that Tina Fey can take it or leave it that neo-Nazis hold rallies, when an honest person would know that she wants exactly the same thing, which is to see these people go away. In that 7-minute bit, there was one underlying point: "Fuck these racist white boys." Someone holding that view must have some enlightenment about their white privilege.
If you read the comments on some of the YouTube videos, they're filled with Trump voters who believe the "Antifa" are violent, Tina Fey is not funny, SNL is filled with liberal pussies, blah blah blah. They apparently get that they're the object of Tina Fey's scorn. Fey seems to have pissed off Nazis and the professional outrage machine. That's like the boss level of a comedy video game.
But perhaps a lesson will be learned, and Tina Fey will come to see that a much more meaningful way to change history is blogging on TheRoot.com.