4 responses to “Racial Equity Anti Heros: Meryl Streep”

1. 

   Emily Holzknecht

   February 10, 2021

   I haven’t yet had one from this series who is a person I felt particularly attached to. I am interested to see my clench and how I work through it when one does come up. I just read that Gina Carano was fired from Star Wars today. She was Cara Dune on the Mandalorian, and when I first saw her, I loved how she was such a female GIJoe. So I went to read up on her so I could love her more and immediately discovered she is an awful bigot. In her case it was much easier to find than possibly what Tiffany Washington has been sharing which is no doubt hidden under layers of white praise. I am thinking that should be my process now if I think I might want to fan over someone, dig for the anti-hero story even if it isn’t immediately glaring me in the face like it was with Carano.

2. 

   Emily Holzknecht

   February 10, 2021

   Both “we are all from Africa” and that T-shirt are both rejecting context and erasing Black people. “We are all from Africa” ignores the unique context and history of people who still live in Africa and the Arabic world. It is a colorblind approach to race where the default of whiteness wins out if we don’t consider people’s unique experiences based on race and culture. The T-shirt erases Black slaves because for hundreds of years they were both rebels and slaves, often at the same time. From the very first person who was kidnapped and taken across the ocean to be a slave, Black people have been rebels. Rebel OR slave is a false binary. The T-shirt is implying that slavery is a choice when in reality slavery is obviously not a choice and rebelling in the context of oppression is hardly a choice either.
   I uphold false binaries (and white supremacy) when I don’t speak up when other white people act as if human rights are a zero sum game, as if marginalized people gaining rights somehow takes away rights from white people.

3. 

   Michelle Wicks Cypher

   February 9, 2021

   I saw Meryl Streep’s name and I had a little “noooo” clench. The reality is the only thing I truly know about her is some of her movies that I like her in. I like how she acts. I don’t actually know about her as an actress outside of being able to do her roles well and even less of her as a person. I feel like I often react to someone in that one dimensional way, both good and bad. It does not serve that person any more than it serves me. It probably does serve or supremacist society though since so much is ingrained into us to instinctively react positively to a white face and negatively to a darker face. I can move past it, but that instinctive first impression is pretty ingrained and often goes unnoticed. I do find her shirt rather offensive though. I think I would have found it offensive even before my growth and learning from this space.

4. 

   Rebecca McClinton

   February 8, 2021

   Meryl saying all of us are from Africa is like wp engaging in blackface. Her defense of ‘not knowing’ offends from the victim position and is a denial of her responsibility to educate herself about others experiences. The shirt is sickening. It presupposes that people had some sort of choice in slavery…it’s victim blaming and gas lighting. I did feel some clench, seeing Meryl’s face. I’ve enjoyed some movies she’s been in, and this reinforces for me the importance that I seek to learn who a person’s true character is, not just the one they are presenting onscreen.