Randy Rainbow: The tweets, the apology and how our "allies" betrayed us
Last summer, comedian Randy Rainbow, found himself in some more than hot water when old tweets resurfaced where Rainbow made offensive comments about Black, Asian, Hispanic, trans people, among others. The tweets date back to 2010 with some as recent as 2016.
Here are just some of them.
Rainbow himself, or someone running his Twitter account, deleted these at a rapid pace over a couple of days but a spreadsheet was created to collect them all. As of me writing this piece, there were more than 60 tweets listed.
As outrage mounted, Rainbow went on radio silence and didn’t apologize until almost two days later in an interview with The Advocate. He told the website:
“Twitter has recently reminded me about 10 years ago, in my maiden quest to be funny, I tweeted some jokes that were completely offensive and insensitive to look back on them now, especially with no context or nuance and through the prism of where we are in 2020 with racial inequality and the fight for social justice, which I'm proudly a part of,” he begins. “In light of issues that are now at the forefront, which I'm passionate about and have spoken up about over the years, these tweets just sound racist and awful. I'm embarrassed by them. They make me sick to my stomach, in fact, and I deeply apologize to anyone I offended.”
Later he said that those “jokes” were part of him crafting his comedic character,
“The comedy landscape was completely different back then,” he argues. “This kind of edgy shock comedy was not only acceptable but a prevalent style. I was an aspiring comedian in my 20s working the stages in gay nightclubs where we said the most outlandish, raunchy things we could think of. I was searching for my comedy voice, my persona, and I was emulating styles and jokes of people that I was seeing in the mainstream.”
You can read the entire interview here. (Not for nothing but for someone known for making videos, it would have been nice if he recorded his apology instead of tacking at the end of a magazine profile.)
In the time between the outrage and the apology, many flocked to social media to weigh in on the issue which led to debates over “cancel culture” and the statute of limitations when it comes to old problematic social media postings. And after his apology, many cis white fans were ready to forgive and forget while those targeted in those old tweets, felt that this apology actually brought up more issues deserving of a conversation.
Before I begin digging into this, because of the times we’re in, I should disclose a couple of things: I’m not a Trump supporter. I’m not looking to “cancel” Randy Rainbow. I’m not jealous of his success. I feel like I have to state these things because his followers/fans have accused me of one or all three in response to my criticisms.
I think Rainbow is an incredibly talented performer who saw the moment to connect his skillsets to our political climate to create entertaining content which has built him quite an online presence. I’ve shared plenty of his work on my own social media channels and I often find it hilarious.
Having said that, I am an Asian male. I was the target of Randy Rainbow’s jokes. My perspective is different from a white person’s perspective. And I see issues with both his old tweets and new apology. More so, I am troubled by the response from those so eager to dismiss and disqualify the reactions from BIPOC and trans people, especially when those same people promised to be allies to those communities.
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I don’t want to spend too much time on the tweets themselves. They’re obviously vile and offensive. By his own admission, Rainbow agrees. But where most of my issues lie is his explanation of why they exist.
Rainbow stated that those jokes were posted in a time when the “comedy landscape was completely different”. I agree, 2010 was a different time than 2020 and does seem like a long time ago. But let’s not all of a sudden start thinking that the 2010 comedic landscape was the same as it was in the 1970s.
Comedians were being called out for offensive material - some of it on stage and some of it on Twitter. Gilbert Gottfried was fired from his gig at AFLAC over offensive jokes he tweeted in response to the tsunami in Japan in 2011. That same year, Adam Corolla apologized after being called out by GLAAD for jokes about the LGBTQ community, including when he said “that LGBTQ people should just call themselves “Yuck," then ended the tirade with the question, "When did we start giving a s--t about these [transgender] people?”
Corolla’s controversy and apology occurred around the same months Rainbow was making similar offensive jokes about the transgender community.
The point is, offensive jokes made about these communities in 2010-2011 were considered wrong and offensive in 2010-2011. Rainbow’s attempt to make us think otherwise is a standard defense for someone in hot water over past wrongdoings.
The other thing worth mentioning too is that while certain terms and names Rainbow uttered are now considered out-dated slurs, the sentiment behind the jokes has always been offensive to people he was targeting. The types of jokes he said about Asians are the same jokes I’ve heard my entire life. I didn’t find them funny in 2010, 2000, or 1990. I would have reacted to Rainbow’s comments, the same way I did when I saw them for the first time last week.
The reason why these jokes are “considered” offensive in 2020 is that it took that long for cis white America to listen to who those jokes were targeting and the damage they can do.
Also, we’re not talking about one or two jokes, we’re talking about over 50. Many of them elicited no reaction at the time. I don’t know about you, but if racist/transphobic material isn’t going over on the first try, I don’t think going back to that well 50 more times is the right move.
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After the news broke and Rainbow’s apology was published, there was a wave of reaction on social media. Many continued to criticize him and many came to his defense. But what struck me as interesting was seeing how many white people were telling him that “it was alright” and that they forgive him for what he said.
Meanwhile, this Asian was confused because Randy wasn’t targeting those people with those jokes, so therefore he wasn’t apologizing to them. To make matters worse, when a BIPOC or trans person would mention this or other issues they had with Rainbow’s words, they were greeted with responses like “haven’t you ever said anything you’re ashamed of?”
Like this gem where a white woman tries to tell a black man how to react to racist jokes.
By the way, if you want to see all of these comments, just head on down to Randy’s Twitter, they’re easy to find, just like his old offensive material was. It doesn’t take Trump-supporting, hacker-level ability to find them, as some suggested it did. They just don’t know how to use the search bar.
But while these folks might think they’re doing what they can to help protect Rainbow from the scourge of right-wing haters, what they’re actually doing is waving the cis white privilege flag and planting it in the neck of BIPOC and trans people after pummeling them with microaggression hit combos.
I don’t need white people to be offended by jokes about Asian people. It’s not their place to dismiss our anger or disqualify our objections to such material. And it’s certainly not their place to step in front of us to accept apologies while we’re still wanting to have a dialogue about this.
As I say this, I admit I’m not speaking for every Asian person, nor anyone else targeted by Rainbow’s jokes. Many others may feel differently. But when a BIPOC or a trans person demonstrates their disapproval towards Rainbow, the last thing they need is a cis white person telling them they shouldn’t feel that way.
I’ll admit that many people who I either viewed as allies or others who promoted themselves to be, let me down with the way they’ve responded to this situation. I wouldn’t blame anyone who felt that they were betrayed by the very people who vowed to metaphorically march alongside them.
When they tell us to forgive and forget, that makes me question whether or not they’re truly on our side. And if they apply that attitude towards this issue, who is to say they don’t/won’t in others?
When they say that “Black Lives Matter”, does that only apply to police injustices and not when issues are raised from within their circles?
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For some, this whole issue will be old news. Rainbow will post a new video and his fandom will like it and share it around social media.
But I do hope this situation does spark a conversation about how we react to similar circumstances in the future and the dialogue resulting from them. It’s easy to attack the other political aisle for similar wrongdoings, but when it comes to our own side, then objection becomes selective. We can’t continue to let that happen.