Netflix immersed itself in the culture wars of the United States with a special by comedian Dave Chappelle described as transphobic by employees of the company itself and that has added fuel to the debate on the limits of freedom of expression.
On "The Closer", Chappelle, a celebrated humorist, claims that "gender is a fact" and argues that LGBTQ people are "too susceptible".
"In our country you can shoot and kill a black man, but it is better not to hurt the feelings of a gay person"says the comedian, who is black.
While the show has been condemned by LGBTQ groups, including GLAAD, which cited studies linking stereotypes about minorities to attacks in the real world, Netflix has been adamant that it will not be pulled.
The streaming giant is at the center of its probably most intense controversy yet.
Chappelle remains very popular, at a time when Netflix is ​​competing with rivals like HBO and Disney in the so-called streaming wars.
For this last proposal it obtained a disbursement of 24 million dollars from Netflix.
This controversy raises broader questions about the role of entertainment giants like Netflix in delivering messages to society.
"Netflix is ​​no longer a small company, it is a large content manufacturer that last year spent around 17,000 million dollars"said Stephen Galloway, dean of film and multimedia arts at California-based Chapman University.
This is the first case in which Netflix is ​​at the center of a controversy over freedom of expression, and "has planted flag in front of the limitation of the word", he pointed.
"Face to face"
On "The Closer", Chappelle stages an American rapper who jokes about AIDS and the LGBT community, compares trans women to blackface, the use of makeup to characterize a black person, and jokes about threatening to kill a woman and hide his body in his car.
In a memo that was leaked to the press, the company’s chief content officer, Ted Sarandos, claims that "the contents on the screen are not directly translated into the real world" and that the Chappelle show is popular and represents an important expression of artistic freedom.
But a group of Netflix employees plan to crack down next week to protest against their bosses for endorsing Chappelle’s proposal.
A worker was fired for leaking internal data about the fee charged by the comedian.
"We understand that this employee may have been motivated by the disappointment and pain that Netflix would have caused him, but maintaining a culture of trust and transparency is critical to our company."the company said in a statement sent to AFP.
Sarandos defended Chappelle’s presence on Netflix and recalled that the channel also features artists like Hannah Gadsby, whose acclaimed special "Nanette" recounted her terrible experiences of homophobic violence as a lesbian woman.
That earned him an expletive-laden response from Gadsby on Instagram.
"We’re seeing Netflix leaders go head-to-head with some of their employees"Galloway said.
"When does Ryan Murphy say this is unacceptable?"he asked, referring to the LGBTQ-themed greatest hitmaker as "Pose", who has a $ 300 million deal to make shows for Netflix.
"Earthquake"
Chappelle’s case is even more complicated because, although he is accused of harassing a vulnerable minority, the comedian repeatedly points out during the show that he is a member of another, the African American.
"The special draws its energy from one of the hottest debates in popular culture, about competing claims of victimization."Helen Lewis wrote in The Atlantic.
Chappelle’s case recalls the controversy unleashed last year by the author of "Harry Potter", JK Rowling, who defended the reality of biological sex, an opinion that many considered transphobic.
Chappelle claims during his show that white homosexuals "they are in the minority until they need to be white again", and that LGBTQ communities have made progress in a few years while blacks have not been able to do so in decades.
"Here are multiple fractures"Galloway said. "Anyone could generate an earthquake".
.