A tradition in comedy says: Always punch up, never punch down. That is to say, don’t attack people who are already marginalized. Right now, we’re in the middle of two controversies involving humorists. ◊♦◊ One involves punching up. Some people are upset over Michelle Wolf’s routine at the White House correspondents’ dinner, where she attacked…
Category: Essays
What We Should Really Be Boycotting
Oh, my fellow liberal white people. Let’s be honest. We’re not protesting Starbucks because they have racist employees. We’re protesting them because they got caught. They had racist employees last week, last month, last year. We didn’t protest them then. And they’re not alone. Just about every business we walk into has some racist employees….
What Would YOU Do? Real Life Edition
This week, two black men were arrested in a Philadelphia Starbucks for “loitering.” According to GMP’s Christopher Norris, who spoke to the management, the men weren’t given any warning prior to the police showing up. Two videos have surfaced so far showing the altercation. The shorter one, posted on Twitter by Melissa DePino, shows a…
The Abuse of Lorena Bobbitt and the Twisting of a Narrative
When I was a child, I was afraid of public restrooms. I regularly avoided them. The biggest reason was a racist urban legend. I’d lived for a few years in Pontiac, Michigan, and I was told about something that had supposedly happened in a local shopping mall. A white boy had gone into the restroom…
How to Be Respectful of a Trans Person
Every year, March 31 is Trans Day of Visibility. This day “aims to bring attention to the accomplishments of trans people everywhere while fighting cissexism and transphobia.” If you’re still struggling with understanding transgender, nonbinary, and other gender identity topics, I get it: Like most people, I was raised to think that boys were boys,…
Man Caves and Toxic Masculinity
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Not all masculinity is toxic. I’ve been seeing a lot of men suggesting that manhood is under attack. That everything to do with men is considered toxic. That the only “non-toxic” form of manhood is some sort of feminized masculinity, stripped of everything that traditionally made men,…
Two Shootings, Two Standards
On March 7, 2018, a student at Huffman High School in Birmingham, AL, fired a gun, killing a girl and injuring himself. On March 20, 2018, a student at Great Mills High School in Lexington Park, MD, fired a gun, killing a girl and injuring another student. He was killed in the incident. We can,…
Why “Not All Men” is a Poor Response
“Not all men.” There was a time, years ago, when I used to start many responses with those three words. “Men commit rape.”: “Not all men.” “Men are violent.”: “Not all men.” “Men hide their feelings.”: “Not all men.” This is a defensive response that refocuses the discussion. It’s also highly patronizing: Few people who…
Not All Masculinity is Toxic
As the term “toxic masculinity” gets more widespread, I see more people complain about it. The interpretation is that the term implies that all men are toxic. In reality, it does exactly the opposite. To see why, I need to give a brief grammar lesson. First, I’ll talk about restrictive vs non-restrictive clauses. Then I’ll…
Attacking the Roots of White Male Entitlement
In 1992, two white Detroit police officers assaulted Malice Green, a black man. He died after the assault, and while he did have drugs in his system, the courts decided that the brutal assault by the officers was what led to his death. They were sentenced to multiple years in prison. Twenty years later, in…