Wow! Congratulations! An Unethical Triple Crown!
The depressing thing is that I should have to explain to some people what’s unethical about this.
The show, it appears, was sold out. Never mind. People who were not going to be at the show didn’t want people who did to have the chance, and a cowardly, mealy-mouthed, censorship-embracing management didn’t have the integrity or ethical literacy to tell them to learn to live with the reality that everyone doesn’t have to think like they think.
The problem, of course, is that Chappelle has made fun of transsexuals. He’s a comedian, and if he gets laughs, he is doing his job. Nobody is required to watch, listen to, laugh at or even read what Chappelle says. In the announcement above, the statement that the venue believes in artistic expression is spectacularly dishonest, and it’s a mark of how lunkheaded the management is that it would dare to publish such nonsense. ‘We believe in artistic expression, unless someone who doesn’t believe in it complains, in which case we’re with the censors.’ “Lost sight of the impact”? What does that mean? Artistic expression is supposed to have impact; so is free speech. So this pathetic club believes in artistic expression as long as it approves of the impact, or is sure the expression will have no impact at all?
Of course, we have the current Left-blather about “safety,” as if Chappelle will be wielding Monty Python’s “killer joke.” Within that “black box,” nobody would be “unsafe,” and everyone there would have voluntarily consented to whatever the comic had to offer.
First Avenue should be sorry all right: it should be sorry for further eroding society’s support for free speech, non-conforming opinions, and disruptive art. It has actually stated that the highest standard is to silence artists, and to yield to ideologically motivated censors.
The lowest standard is now the highest. Most won’t, because artists typically have the political sophistication and depth of a stack of pancakes, but performers of integrity should refuse to appear at First Avenue. It does not represent a high standard; it does not support diverse voices; it does not respect artistic freedom, and encouraging viewpoint censorship is certainly not safe for a democracy.
Ethics Alarms 
Sigh. And I live here. First The Guthrie, now First Ave. I’m running out of places to go.
Well, if you stay in the Twin Cities anyway….
First Avenue’s mission statement has apparently changed.
They should just put *Feeling Groovy* on big screen continuous loop with cheap admission to keep the snowflakes hypnotized.
Do it for the children.
They’re attempting to silence a person of color?
Why, yes they are.
jvb
I find this particularly amusing.
In high school my friends and I went to a show there called Metal Massacre. It was a multi-band event and I went specifically to see the Native American band Injustice. After dance/kicking around in the mosh pit, I stayed for the next band called Cannibal Corpse.
Little did I know that band was known for being racist.
I was wearing a white tee shirt that had a photo of two punk rock chicks kissing that said “Read My Lips.” Yeah it was the nineties.
Anyway as my friends and I waited, the curtain rose, and the stage revealed a cross with meat hanging all over it. I think I was the only person with brown skin in the audience but didn’t think much about it.
The next I knew a piece of meat the size of a rump roast was thrown hard directly at my chest, leaving my shirt covered in cow blood. As I looked down and started to realize what hit me, boom, another chunk of meat hit me in the head. Then another pound of flesh came my way but it hit my leg and then the floor. I looked up to see one of the band members lifting his arm with more meat in hand getting ready hit me again.
Luckily my friend grabbed my hand and got me out of there. I had to go home and wash the blood off my shirt, head, and leg.
It was humiliating. My friends called First Ave the next day leaving staff a message saying what happened and that the band targeted me out of racial hate. No one ever called back.
First Ave contains mostly good memories for me in spite of that situation and I always felt proud to be a part of its legacy. I took the bad experience on the chin (literally) and it gave me quite a story to tell.
Not sure if I can say out right that First Ave is being hypocritical but I do think they’re full of crap on this.
That is both disturbing and infuriating Mrs. Q!
I suppose you never learned how the crowd reacted and more importantly First Ave staff.
If First Ave had any integrity they would have called LE and had the guy charged with battery.
Show over even without the call.
Agreed, that is awful. But, it’s from those idiots in Cannibal Corpse. And calling them “idiots” is being generous.
jvb
What a horrible experience, Mrs. Q. I’m so sorry.
But at least First Ave kept you “safe”…..
Exactly!