Reply to ABC cancels 'Roseanne' after racist Twitter rant

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[quote=jsteele][quote=Anonymous]I have no problem with ABC's decision to fire Roseanne. I DO have a problem with them doing so and then their sister corporation, ESPN, hiring Olbermann after these:

http://www.breitbart.com/sports/2018/05/28/espn-re-hire-keith-olbermann-wrote-book-calling-president-trump-fcking-crazy-person/

Consistency would be nice, liberals. Otherwise, cut the outrage. [/quote]

This post says a lot about today's conservatives. Olbermann has called Trump a Nazi. Roseanne said that Jarrett was the offspring of the Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes. Many, such as the quoted poster, believe these are equivalent remarks. Others, including me, would argue that Roseanne's tweet was racist in that it indulged in the historic disparagement of blacks by comparing them to apes or monkeys. It is the racism inherent in Roseanne's insult that places it on a different level than "run of the mill" insults. I am pretty sure that if Roseanne had simply called Jarrett a Nazi, nobody would have even raised an eyebrow. Indeed, it is a pretty sad commentary, but in the days of grammar nazis, soup nazis, and even the President's lawyer referring to the FBI as "stormtroopers", "nazi" has become pretty played out as an insult. More importantly, in the context in which Olberman used it, it clearly referred to political positions held by the President. Certainly the accuracy of the label could be disputed -- and I for one would dispute it -- but it is simply not comparable to a racist epithet.

We have seen this before with regard to other protected groups. Our society generally rejects prejudice based on inherent qualities such as race, gender, sexual orientation and so on. These are things that people are, not things that choose to be. But, increasingly, conservatives view political affiliation as deserving of such protections. If you can't discriminate against racial minorities, they argue, why can you discriminate against Trump supporters? Or, as the previous poster suggests, if you can't compare an African American woman to an ape, why can you call the President a Nazi? Both of these are viewed through a political lens with Roseanne being viewed by conservatives as a conservative, rather than a racist. So, having her show cancelled is not viewed as punishment of a racist, but rather of a conservative and, therefore, should be offset by punishment of a liberal. I think this is simply an indication of how many on the right -- though certainly not all -- just don't take racism as seriously as those of us on the left.
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