On Oct. 20, hundreds of Netflix employees walked out of work in protest of the controversial Dave Chappelle special “The Closer.”
Those employees, many other supporters, and activists carried signs that read: “Transphobia Is Not a Joke” and “Hey Netflix: Do Better.” The employees even started chants of “Team trans!” They rallied together a couple of hours before work. At noon that same day, some Netflix employees stopped what they were doing and called off the rest of the day.
Ashlee Marie Preston who was featured in the Netflix documentary “Disclosure”, which is about Hollywood’s impact on the transgender community, was one of the organizers for the rally.
According to CBS, when Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos was asked about the communication between his employees and detractors, he said: “I screwed it up in two ways. First and foremost, I should have led with a lot more humanity. Meaning, I had a group of employees who were definitely feeling pain and hurt from a decision we made. And I think that needs to be acknowledged up front before you get into the nuts and bolts of anything. I didn’t do that.”
During the rally, there was a small group of counter-protesters who were vastly outnumbered and had signs that read “Jokes Are Funny” and others that said, “Netflix, Don’t Cancel Free Speech”. The rally remained mostly peaceful.
Even with Dave Chappelle and his special being criticized, some people have defended him. Damon Wayans, a comedian, is one of those people.
Dave Chappelle’s special premiered on Oct. 5, and features several jokes focused on transgender individuals.
One of the most highly criticized things Chappelle said in this special was “Gender is a fact. Every human being in this room, every human being on earth, had to pass through the legs of a woman to be on earth.”
The special still continues to draw criticism from the LGBTQ+ community. They have accused the show of targeting transgender people and even possibly inciting violence against the community.
According to the New York Times, Netflix said “we value our trans colleagues and allies and understand the deep hurt that’s been caused.” They went on to say, “we respect the decision of any employee who chooses to walk out and recognize we have much more work to do both within Netflix and in our content.”
Chappelle’s special is still up as of now.
Nick Thomas
Intern