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Netflix walkout over Dave Chappelle isn't just about transgender lives

Jaden Amos   | Paste BN

Good evening! Today Netflix employees had a walkout in part over Dave Chappelle's transphobic comments in his comedy specials. But this walkout isn't just about Dave Chappelle. It's about something more. 

Netflix walkout over Chappelle not just about transgender lives

By Leigh Finke

Wednesday, members of the trans employee resource group at Netflix will stage a walkout. In addition to the walkout, the resource group has released a number of demands for Netflix to comply with, including “measures … to avoid future instances of platforming transphobia and hate speech.”

The walkout is the latest in a continually escalating crisis created by transphobic content on the streaming giant’s platform. Last week, the company fired a Black transgender (and pregnant!) employee who helped to organize the walkout. Prior to the firing, Netflix had suspended Terra Field, a transgender employee who had tweeted a critical thread aimed at the company’s decision to continue to air anti-trans content.

All the while, Netflix has stood by the decision to platform, promote and profit from content that will harm transgender people. How Netflix finds itself in this sticky cultural and political morass is bit of a winding tale, so bear with me.

Today's Editorial Cartoon

Senate can end gerrymandering with Freedom to Vote Act

By The Editorial Board

The truth is both parties are guilty of gerrymandering. But Republicans shine at it because they control three times as many state redistricting efforts than Democrats, an edge that could well help them win back the House of Representatives next year.

There are slow- and fast-acting remedies to this pernicious rite. The slow one is halting and difficult, but better than nothing. The fast one is elegant and certain, and sadly facing a difficult vote Wednesday in the Senate.

Both remedies would be vast improvements over the status quo:

Politics dominate 'independent' redistricting panels

By Adam Kincaid

Even when members are genuinely nonpartisan, biased voices aren’t shut out entirely: California’s commission heard public comment from numerous sources who failed to disclose their partisan affiliations.

There’s also no guarantee that commissions will operate in the kind of nonpartisan spirit promised by reformers. Just look at the Virginia Redistricting Commission, where Democratic members recently walked out after failing to persuade Republicans to vote for legislative maps that clearly favored Democrats

Other columns to read today

Columns on qualified immunity

Here's a new section we're adding to the newsletter.  Currently we are doing a series examining the issue of qualified immunity. For more on the series read here. 

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