Okay gotta say props to this anon for being dedicated enough to send an essay into my inbox and being generally irritating as all hell but I’ll bite. Let’s unpack this.
I didn’t say that only white people are offended by him. I said that most of my POC friends didn’t have an issue with RDJ’s role in Tropic Thunder and that it feels like people who criticize him for that role are white people being offended on our behalf, which we didn’t ask for. Never have I spoken for all members of a racial group, but I, as a POC myself, am saying that I don’t need someone to come in here to speak for me either.
So RDJ publicly asked people to forgive Gibson. That’s not so different from Gibson personally vouching for RDJ at a time when he was uninsurable and thus unable to find work. RDJ never excused Gibson’s actions, did he? Nor did he claim that Gibson didn’t need to face the consequences of his actions. Gibson has hardly even been in the public eye for years now. How do you know if he’s changed or not by now? And anon, how shitty of a friend must you be, if you’re the type of person who believes in ditching someone who was there for you over a drunken mistake they made? Empathy must not be a concept you understand, because real human connections aren’t like social media. You don’t just unfriend or unfollow someone after seeing them make bad comments in a post and expect to wipe your hands clean of them. Gibson was there for RDJ in a time when no one else was. RDJ feels a sense of loyalty. There’s no fault in that.
Super convenient that they don’t have a link handy, but lucky for you, I do. Here’s the profile in question and if you don’t want to read the whole thing, here’s the quote:
“I have a really interesting political point of view, and it’s not always something I say too loud at dinner tables here, but you can’t go from a $2,000-a-night suite at La Mirage to a penitentiary and really understand it and come out a liberal. You can’t. I wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone else, but it was very, very, very educational for me and has informed my proclivities and politics every since.”
Never once did he use coded language or outright state that he became politically conservative because of black people specifically. Read the whole article if you want. It’s an interesting piece.
You might remember when RDJ walked out of an interview a few years ago during the AOU press circuit because of a reporter’s inappropriate line of questioning. It was a huge deal at the time, and almost every entertainment news site and channel was reporting on it. That interviewer tried bringing up this exact interview about RDJ ~not being liberal~ and asked him to clarify what he meant. Before RDJ walked out, he said this:
“I could pick that apart for two hours and be no closer to the truth than giving you some half-arsed answer right now,” Downey replied with a smile. “I couldn’t even really tell you what a liberal is, so, therein lies the answer to your question.”
Now, since RDJ’s two biggest crimes are apparently racism and conservativism, here’s another source to debunk such claims. In 2012, RDJ donated extensively to Obama’s campaign. He has a history of donating to the DNC and you can search for all of that easily here. I’d post screenshots, but Tumblr has a limit on the number of images I can add to a post, so here’s a quick exercise in simple math: in 2012 alone, he donated over $75K to the DNC. In 2014, he donated $32K to the democratic senate campaigns.
And if that’s not enough for you, here’s an entire expose that shows you a year in the life of RDJ during his time in prison. Not once, ever, did he say anything about anyone’s race, and when asked pointed questions about whether he was treated in any negative way (sexual harassment, fights, etc.), RDJ never put anyone on the spot and tried diverting the conversation elsewhere.
Never once have I ever said that people need tor forgive and forget what RDJ has done in the past. You’re free to dislike him all you want, hold on to grudges over his mistakes and use that as a reason to continue hating him. Whatever. I don’t give a single fuck what you think about him. But don’t go around harassing people who are clearly his fans with your age old receipts in an attempt to make them feel like shit about liking him. Right now, you’re basically acting like that Channel 4 reporter while I’m in RDJ’s position. So I’m going to follow in RDJ’s footsteps and walk out now, because quite frankly, you’ve wasted enough of my time already.
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