On Amber Ruffin and the Amazing Disappearing White House Correspondents Dinner
Back in March of this year, comedienne Amber Ruffin was announced as the featured entertainer at this year’s White House Correspondents Association dinner. It was all set in stone. The event was a go. Amber is an incredible comedienne, a pioneer in late-night television (when she joined Late Night with Seth Meyers' writing team, she became the first Black woman to write for a late-night network talk show in the United States), and more than deserving of the spotlight she was offered.
And then, during a podcast appearance, Amber called out the hateful, murderous actions of y'all's president and his cronies and made clear her focus at the White House Correspondents dinner would largely be on the president's actions.
And just like that, Amber Ruffin was out.
And just like that, Eugene Daniels, the White House Correspondents Association's president, said the group wanted to "refocus" the annual event on journalistic excellence and wouldn’t have a comedian going forward.
And just like that, y'all's president declared that the Correspondents dinner was no longer an event that acting presidents needed to attend, defeating the purpose of the whole thing, because he was obviously uncomfortable with his massive flaws being on display.
I posted about this back in March, as I felt it was a red flag for the abuses of Black women I saw on the horizon as well as the deterioration of free speech. Most of y'all didn't engage with that post.
But a whole lot of y'all engaged with my posts around Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel.
And while those cancellations are scary and emblematic of the direction we're going in as a country, guess what?
So was Amber's situation.
Where was y'all's outrage then? Wanna talk about that? Of course you don't. Y'all ain't ready for that kind of conversation.
Y'all also ain't ready to talk about the Venn Diagram of liberal viewpoints, anti-Blackness, and anti-Black woman and Black femme ideologies that so many of y'all be doin' the butterfly and the Tootsie Roll on while patting yourself on the back for standing up for something.
Holla at me when y'all are ready to chat.
[Image description: A picture of Black female comedienne Amber Ruffin, laughing while sitting on a red couch.]
Image description: A picture of Black female comedienne Amber Ruffin, laughing while sitting on a red couch.