Stop Caping For Your Fave, They Are More Than Just “Problematic”
“Oh my god, I love Obama but he’s so problematic. But that’s okay because nobody is perfect.”
“Problematic” is widly used in a context as a synonym for “racist”, “sexist” and/or etc, but then treated differently opposed to calling the person “racist”, “sexist”, and/or etc. It’s treated like it’s not “that bad”; as if it can somehow be dismissed or downplayed since they’re “just problematic like everybody else.”
In retrospect, all people are problematic but not all of us refuse to unlearn stuff when we’re called out. Some of us that are problematic unlearn stuff when we mess up— but not your fave. They’re happily and actively perpetuating oppression(s) and that’s not something that can be reduced down to “problematic” & discarded as if it’s just like messing up & unlearning. They speak over marginalized people. They block people that call them out. They continue to do the same racist, sexist, transphobic, etc stuff despite being called out and knowing better. They don’t want to unlearn. Your fave is more than just “problematic”. You’re not allowed to try and absolve them of accountability or try & downplay the totality of their perpetuation of oppression(s) with “well they’re just problematic like everybody else”, because they’re your “fave”.
Obama supporting and aiding Israel’s genocide, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes against Palestinians is not something that can be reduced down to “problematic” and then discarded as if it’s not “that bad”.
Obama supporting drone strikes in the face of evidence that 90% of the people killed were innocent, is not just “problematic” — it’s a war crime.
Obama supporting anti-feminist neoliberal free trade deals like TPP that he knows will hurt working class people, especially working class women, POC, & queer folks, cannot be shrugged off as “problematic” while marginalized people suffer.
Obama silencing, speaking over and kicking out immigrant trans women of color when she called him out for his mass deportations & transmisogyny, is Obama actively and happily engaging in transmisogyny and xenophobia. Actually, the crowd didn’t just cape for this transmisogynistic mess, they cheered it on. They applauded a cis man speaking over and kicking out an immigrant trans woman when she called him out on mass deportation and inhuman detention of queer immigrants.
Obama’s imperialism, neocolonialism, neoliberalism and militarism cannot be brushed off as just “problematic” or as if it’s not “that bad” because it may not directly harm us. I’m fairly certain that the families of people murdered by Obama’s drone strikes do not find that to just be “problematic”, like it’s no big deal. His nearly 9 billion dollar cut to food stamps — that’s beyond problematic. This isn’t exclusive to just Obama either; but the way liberals cape for many Obama’s oppressive and horrible policies for the sake of identity politics enables oppression. This applies to Hillary Clinton, Tina Fey, Jennifer Lawerence, Dan Savage, Azealia Banks, and so on. We are doing ourselves and our communities an injustice when we cape for their bullshit.
And I don’t want to hear the excuse “Oh they’re just unlearning, it’s a process”. Misogyny is something that takes time to unlearn because you’re unlearning a lot of things. Transphobia is something that can take time to unlearn because you’re unlearning a lot of things. The whole thing, every aspect of it and how it’s perpetuated, takes time to unlearn because it is many different things you unlearn, not one specific thing.
When you do or say problematic shit in particular, multiple times and keep saying, "Well it's a process, they’re trying to unlearn it.", you attempt to absolve them of accountability as if they didn’t know better. Not calling women "whores" because of the way they dress is not something that takes time to unlearn. Not using transphobic slurs is not something that "takes time" to unlearn. If they’re being called out multiple times about one thing specifically, it's not them "unlearning". They need to be held accountable for what they did and they need to do better.
It’s time to stop apologizing and caping for our “problematic faves”. We’ve got to stop trying to exempt them from being held accountable for their behavior and contribution to oppression(s). So lets try this again, without attempting to absolve Obama from being held accountable:
“Oh my god, I love Obama, he’s so funny and charismatic but he’s a xenophobic neoliberal imperial transmisogynist and needs to be held responsible for his oppressive policies & behavior.”
