Being Ricardos Director and writer Aaron Sorkin has defended Netflix’s decision to keep controversial Dave Chapelle private on its streaming platform, despite the comedian’s anti-transgender statements.
“My play, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, had to close with everyone else a year ago, when COVID came along, and during that year and a half, five different school districts in the country banned the teaching of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ along with With The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “Of Mice and Men,” Sorkin said in an interview published in The Hollywood Reporter Thursday.
And people will point out to me, ‘Well, they use the N-word in to kill a mockingbird.’ “Isn’t it better to have a discussion in class about this? Isn’t it a chance to talk about that word and why is that word sacred in its power?” he asked.
according to hillWhile Sorkin made it clear that he disagreed with a number of points Chappelle made on his own show, he defended the broadcast giant’s choice to keep it on its platform despite mounting pressure to remove it. Sorkin directed the movie Chicago trial 7 for Netflix, which was released in 2020.
Ban books, ban people. Now, I want to be clear, that’s one thing if someone is spreading serious misinformation or if people are getting beat up or worse because of someone’s rhetoric, that’s a different matter entirely,” Sorkin said. “But just someone offending you? I just think that’s the cost of doing business in a free society.”
Earlier this year, Netflix released a special title for Chappelle the closest, where he said “I’m the TERF team!” Referring to the trans-exclusionary radical feminists, he claimed that “gender is a fact.”
A number of Netflix employees were outraged, and in response, they organized a strike to protest the special and show their solidarity within the transgender community.
Despite the backlash, Chappelle refused to apologize for his comments.
“Say what you said, boy, I heard what you said. Oh my God. How can I not?” Chappelle told the audience in a video posted to Instagram in October.
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