You better be hilarious, kid…
Saturday Night Live recently announced that it was hiring its first Latina cast member, as the show has finally capitulated to placing diversity over humor as a priority. Mexican-American comedian Melissa Villaseñor, 28, the designated quota-filler, barely had time to take a victory lap before that mean internet thingy tracked down some embarrassing baggage, especially for a performer recruited to buff SNL’s progressive credentials. Aura Bogado, a writer for Grist, tweeted that Villaseñor had deleted more than 2,000 tweets from her archives over the course of a week.
Why, you ask? Well, because there were tweets like this…
…this:
…and this one,
Like Clevenger’s tweets, some of her tweets were also not bigoted nor racist, but were still declared so in social media, like this one…
When did it become “racist” to criticize someone for their conduct when they happen to be black? I’ve given my theory on this many times: it is one of the putrid legacies of the Obama Administration, and the conscious strategy by Democrats and progressives to label critics of Barack Obama and his policies as “racist” to intimidate and silence them. Similarly, one cannot criticize the NAACP, Black Lives Matter, violent black looters and rioters in Charlotte (this was Clevenger’s “offense”) or a race-baiting pop star, Beyonce, without having such conduct-based opinions labelled racist by pundits, reporters and social media.
Villaseñor is going to be defended, of course, by two arguments: 1) She was joking! She’s a comedian, so her comments, even if they seem racist or bigoted, should be automatically given a pass, and 2) She’s a member of an oppressed minority herself, so she can’t be racist.
The two have to work in tandem, because we know that a white comedian who issued tweets like that would prompte social justice warriors to be banging on SNL producer Lorne Michaels’ door with pitchforks, demanding his dismissal, and dismissed he would be. Villaseñor might meet the same fate, but I doubt it. Right now, the iconic late night show is laying low, hoping this will blow over, and the most likely result is that the new cast member will issue an apology, claim it was all in good fun, swear that she will be good now, forever more, and keep her job…because she’s Latina, and because SNL has a quota to fill.
Clevenger apologized too, you’ll recall. Never mind: he was disposable and 100% white. (Tangential note: several accounts describe Villaseñor as a “full-blooded Latina.” There is, of course, no such thing.)
Final thoughts:
- Villaseñor better be awfully funny.
- I mark it as high priority to settle what is meant by “racist” is this culture. and it better not end up meaning “criticizing black individuals and groups when they deserve criticism.” Yet that’s the definition that lost Clevenger his job, and quite possibly his career.
- It also better not end up being “things said by whites that non-whites can say with impunity,” like, just as a wild, off the wall example,
- Free speech, expression and opinion really is endangered in this country, and the threat to it is coming entirely from the Left. I am waiting for the member of Left with integrity and respect for American values who openly defies his or her peers and explains why this must stop. Waiting, and waiting…
- We’re not supposed to have anointed groups in this country that can escape accountability from conduct that members of other groups cannot. If that’s not unjust privilege, what is?
Ethics Alarms 
Well, I lost interest in SNL a long time ago. I really don’t see that any of her comments are particularly racist however. I must say that I hope that she doesn’t turn out to be a Tina Fey type. Probably there will be a Latinas for Trump Group segment on the show of which she will be portrayed as the organizer and only member.
You would have to agree that saying she’s afraid of black dates crosses the line, no?
Blind dates are scary period. Especially for a cute Latina.
That girl is quite a number of throw-stones from ‘cute’. And that is part of her appeal I think. This one’s pretty funny. But I don’t think the older set would relate to it:
“the most likely result is that the new cast member will issue an apology, claim it was all in good fun, swear that she will be good now, forever more…”
Don’t forget that her tweets do not represent who she is as a person….
If nothing else, her tweets would indicate that she’s not very funny.
Another thought. Isn’t this supposed to be a comedy show which mocks current political figures of all races. I am reminded of “All In The Family” which was a great show but would never be approved today for fear of offending somebody.
So we have progressed far from the older adage that only blacks can call each other by the n-word., to the place now where only blacks can even discuss black political, show business, or other public figures safely, and even then, if such comments are critical in the least, then the speaker is roundly condemned. This applies to Latinos, single mothers, and Democrat Presidents and Presidential candidates as well.
I agree that this speech control is coming firmly from the left. Witness the state of the supposed liberal arts college in the US. No free speech there, although university was intended to be the bastion of free speech and the liberal exchange of ideas. Non-existent now.
Speech control becomes thought control, does it not? We’re on our way: fairly soon it will be wrong to have dissenting ideas, much less speech. And as Lenin so aptly put it: “Ideas are more powerful than guns. We don’t let people have guns. Why should we let them have ideas?”
(Of course, the gun reference brings up a different set of issues…)
She comes off as racist and unfunny to me.