This may seem like a fairly tame post given the events of the last week (mostly Tuesday), but it turns out that it is all related.
I suppose I am thinking of it more as I mourn Alex Trebek and viewed his final episode of Jeopardy!, because I know that Ken Jennings cannot take his place.
That was initially what I thought would happen, after Jennings was brought on in this "ambassador" position after Trebek's cancer diagnosis. It had seemed like a logical safeguard, then people started highlighting Jennings' Tweet history.
That is bad in itself. At first I only saw a handful of ableist Tweets, which I didn't like, but the non-apology apology probably would have worked for that, based on how things usually go. That non-apology was duly delivered on December 31st.
More kept surfacing. I am not going to dive into them here, but I am providing a link to an explanatory article that is not very hard on Jennings, and then a long thread that has a lot of screen shots and tells you much more.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/31/entertainment/jeopardy-tweets-ken-jennings-trnd/index.html
https://twitter.com/AMan4AllSaisons/status/1345870969160740864
I am not calling Jennings evil here. He is a privileged white man who doesn't have to worry about a lot of these things and who is not used to being criticized.
I am a little disturbed at how frequently anti-Asian jokes come up. He spent 15 years in South Korea and Singapore, just getting declared 2020 Alumnus of the Year for Seoul Foreign School. He may think of the mockery as affectionate, but it's very condescending, and may be taken more seriously by people who assume he knows.
So much of that is typical privilege, but I think he also reveals a mean streak.
Again, all of that would probably not have sunk his career, but the association with "Bean Dad" -- with whom Jennings shares a podcast -- might do it.
If this sinks Ken Jennings, it won't be because John Roderick is a bad father, but because he uses really offensive racist terms instead of satisfying himself with Jennings' more casual racism... and also because Jennings insists on defending Roderick in ignorant ways.
(For one thing, there could be whole dissertations written about how support for Israel does not automatically rule out Antisemitism.)
For all of those things that I am only skimming on and not getting into, this is my point: being okay with casual racism and having a slight mean streak where you think punching down is funny, combined with not taking correction, is exactly how you end up not noticing that you are casting your lot in with someone who is going to damage your career, hurt your reputation, and lead you down bad paths.
Do you know anyone who was at a rally this past week? Did you see that coming for them? Were there signs there that you ignored because you didn't want to be rude, or you like a cheap laugh, or you were just glad it wasn't directed at you?
There has been this veneer of civility over a lot of twisted practices, but it has never been right to ignore the rot underneath, and it is becoming increasingly possible to ignore it.
Which side are you going to choose?
1 comment:
He apologized earlier in 2018, but nobody saw that, apparently. He reposted because he's going under fire now.
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