The Week In Garbage Men: Food Network Idiot Claims 'Straight White Man' Is The New N-Word, Gets Ratioed To Oblivion

Last night, Josh Denny, star of a show I have never heard of on the Food Network called "Ginormous Food" made a ginormous ass of himself on Twitter by trying to claim that the term "Straight White Men" is now equivalent to the "n-word"...

“Straight White Male” has become this century’s N-Word. It’s used to offend and diminish the recipient based on assumption and bias. No difference in the usage.

— Josh Denny (@JoshDenny) May 18, 2018 

And then dug the hole further...

My point is, when you call someone this in conversation - you know exactly what you’re doing: attempting to devalue their POV based on negative cultural stereotypes. That’s racism.

— Josh Denny (@JoshDenny) May 18, 2018 

And then suggested that this was just the kind of thing that Dr. Martin Luther King was fighting against...

Saying “my label for you invalidates your opinion or your place in society” is literally what Dr. King fought against.

— Josh Denny (@JoshDenny) May 18, 2018 

Which is maybe only true if the only thing you know about Dr. King is one sentence from one speech that you are purposely misreading.

Naturally, he continued doubling down on this theory of his, even as over 8,000 people explained to him that no, no, it was not at all the same. Because calling someone the n-word was not so much about simply "devaluing their opinions." I would also like to note that probably, when people bring up that someone is a straight white man, it is because their opinion was a bad opinion and that their position of privilege in this society was perhaps affecting their perspective.

For instance -- if a Straight White Male were to say that calling someone a Straight White Male is the same thing as calling someone the n-word, that might be a position informed by said privilege.

If they were, however, to say something like "Pizza is delicious," it is highly unlikely that anyone would suggest that the validity of that opinion was diminished by their status as a straight white man. It's all actually very simple!

***

Earlier this week, Proud Boys Patriarch Gavin McInnes decided to share his thoughts on sexual harassment in the workplace on his little internet tv show that he has. In an interview with childfree advocate Melanie Notkin, McInnes suggested that the fact that women complain about sexual harassment is "proof" that they don't belong in the first place. Because if they did, they would just be cool with it.

He explained this by saying that he is cool when gay men sexually harass him, which surely is a thing that happens all the time.

Here's an example because I don't like this "some people are like that, some people like that." I want to get down to the nitty-gritty. And I'm thinking of Gretchen Carlson. She got $20 million because Roger Ailes made inappropriate comments. I've worked in New York City for a quarter century or, sorry, for 20 years and gays are constantly making inappropriate comments. Gays, that are above us, gays that are clients that we're trying to get, and we just go, "yeah dude, I'm not performing fellatio for this contract." And you laugh it off and you get a beer with the guy after. You know what I mean? It's a rough and tumble atmosphere.

Ah yes, a rough and tumble atmosphere. And yet some men are just not tough enough to be able to work with a woman without sexually harassing her!

Notkin then suggested that maybe "quid pro quo" sexual harassment, in which a woman is told that she will get a job or a promotion if she sleeps with the boss is bad, but then said "And hey, a lot of women in the 50s and 60s did it," as if this suggested that they were cool with the "rough and tumble" world of quid pro sexual harassment.

MCINNES: Oh, they still do. Look at Harvey Weinstein, look at how many people said, "OK, I will do that for this job." But what I'm getting to here is kind of an ethereal, trippy concept. We maybe should've smoked a joint first.But my point is, isn't the fact that these women are complaining, obviously, these men are pigs, but isn't it kind of proof that women don't belong in the workforce?Like, say, you had women in the NFL --

NOTKIN: Yeah.

MCINNES: -- and there are constantly dealing with broken bones and stuff and we say, "we need to be gentler in football." Or maybe, women don't belong in the NFL in the first place.

NOTKIN: But they're not in the NFL.

MCINNES: Right, but they're in the workforce, and they keep suing and going to HR and complaining. You don't hear men going to HR about being sexually harassed.

Question here! If sexual harassment is as integral a part of the work environment as McInnes believes it is, and these poor men cannot possibly do their jobs without sexually harassing anyone, then whatever would they do if women left the workforce? Women, generally, manage to function without sexually harassing anyone, so perhaps they should stay and the men who don't know how to work without sexually harassing anyone leave? And those men who can manage it can stay? It is a far, far simpler solution.

***

You know what? It has been a SHIT week, filled with more garbage men than you can shake a Spencer's Gifts sword at. So here is a wonderful video of the mariachi band that protesters hired to play out in front of racist attorney and definite garbage man Aaron Schlossberg's apartment! YOU DESERVE IT.

[ Josh Denny Twitter | Media Matters ]

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