‘Dear White People’ Trans Co-Showrunner Announces Netflix Boycott Following Dave Chappelle Special Controversy

JaclynPMoore/Twitter, Netflix

October 11, 2021, 5:35 am

The former co-showrunner of Netflix’s Dear White People has announced that she is boycotting working for the streamer due to their decision to platform transphobic content in Dave Chapelle’s recent controversial comedy special.

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Chappelle’s special, The Closer, has had emotions running high for days, as the LGBTQ community denounces the transphobia and homophobia rampant throughout, and his fans continue to defend him.

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Moore, a trans woman who ran Dear White People for four seasons alongside creator Justin Simien, was among the critics, writing on Wednesday, “I’ve loved working [at Netflix]. I will not work with them as long as they continue to put out and profit from blatantly and dangerously transphobic content.”

Chappelle was one of my heroes. I was at his comeback show in NYC. But he said he’s a TERF. He compared my existence to someone doing blackface. He talks about someone winning a Woman of the Year award despite never having a period should make women mad and that it makes him mad.

— Jaclyn Moore (@JaclynPMoore) October 7, 2021

So when he says people should be mad a trans woman won a “Woman of the Year” award… When he misgenders… When he says he should’ve told that mother her daughter WAS A DUDE… I just can’t… I can’t be a part of a company that thinks that’s worth putting out and celebrating.

— Jaclyn Moore (@JaclynPMoore) October 7, 2021

While some of Chappelle’s defenders claim there was nothing transphobic, in actuality, he outright referred to himself as a TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist), compared trans’ women’s genitals to meat substitute products, and painted trans women as violent people who “want [him] dead,” among other grievances. 

He also repeatedly positioned the LGBTQ community and the Black community against one another, quipping at one point that in America, “you can shoot and kill a [N-word], but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings!”

In a society still rife with violence against the Black community, the queer community, and the trans community, Chappelle’s insistence on punching down — while complaining about others punching down — stoked division and ignited concerns of violence.

“It is much easier to commit violence against someone that you think is immoral or a liar…someone not worthy of your respect. That makes it much easier to hurt me,” Moore said in a subsequent interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “He says, ‘Please stop punching down.’ I don’t know in what world trans women control the universe because from where I’m sitting, Dave Chappelle has all the specials, all the money, all the things. I just want my friends to not get killed.”

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*First Published: October 11, 2021, 5:35 am