Netflix suspends trans employee for crashing meeting in attempt to censor Dave Chappelle
Netflix suspended a trans employee, along with two others, who forced their way into a virtual meeting in an effort to cancel Dave Chappelle's new comedy special.
Netflix has suspended a transgender employee and two others for attempting to barge into a director-level meeting over the company’s refusal to censor and deplatform comedian Dave Chappelle.
As reported by Rebel News, Dave Chappelle raised the ire of progressives and the trans community in his latest Netflix special, “The Closer.” Chappelle stated that “gender is a fact,” and defended Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling in her fight against transgender activists, who are attempting to silence her for speaking her mind on the subject.
The Daily Mail reports that Netflix suspended three employees, including one named Terra Field, who identifies as transgender. Field made a series of tweets criticizing the Netflix comedy special, and worked as a senior software engineer at the company.
“I work at @netflix,” Field tweeted. “Yesterday we launched another Chappelle special where he attacks the trans community, and the very validity of transness -- all while trying to pit us against other marginalized groups.”
“What we object to is the harm that content like this does to the trans community (especially trans people of color) and VERY specifically black trans women,” Field continued.
“Promoting TERF ideology (which is what we did by giving it a platform yesterday) directly harms trans people, it is not some neutral act. This is not an argument with two sides. It is an argument with trans people who want to be alive and people who don't want us to be,” Field wrote. “This all gets brushed off as offense though - because if we're just 'too sensitive' then it is easy to ignore us. I'm surprised I haven't had anyone call me (ironically) 'hysterical' yet today.”
Field proceeded to list 38 names of transgender people who were apparently killed. Field blamed their deaths on transphobia but did not provide evidence to support those claims.
An inside source at Netflix says that three employees, including Field, forced their way into a meeting for company directors and vice presidents. The workers were then suspended as a result of an investigation that found that they attended the virtual meeting uninvited. They were not suspended for speaking out against the company for hosting Dave Chappelle.
“It is absolutely untrue to say that we have suspended any employees for tweeting about this show. Our employees are encouraged to disagree openly and we support their right to do so,” Netflix stated on Monday.
Despite pressure from artists, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said that Chappelle’s material did not amount to “hate,” and that Netflix will not remove the show despite pressure from the company’s talent.
“Some talent may join third parties in asking us to remove the show in the coming days, which we are not going to do,” Sarandos wrote in a company memo obtained by Variety. “We don't allow titles [on] Netflix that are designed to incite hate or violence, and we don't believe The Closer crosses that line.”
“Some people find the art of stand-up to be mean-spirited but our members enjoy it, and it’s an important part of our content offering,” he continued. “I recognize, however, that distinguishing between commentary and harm is hard, especially with stand-up comedy which exists to push boundaries.”
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