Netflix workers protest Chappelle’s transgender comments

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Netflix Inc employees are staging a strike Wednesday in an unprecedented show of defiance to protest the streaming giant’s decision to launch the controversial new comedy special from comedian Dave Chappelle, which they say ridicules people. trans.

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A group of employees calling themselves Team Trans * has scheduled a rally outside Netflix’s 13-story offices on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, where activists, public figures and other supporters plan to present content director Ted Sarandos with a “list. of questions”.

“We shouldn’t have to come forward quarterly / annually to reject harmful content that negatively impacts vulnerable communities,” wrote organizer Ashlee Marie Preston in a social media post. “Instead, our goal is to seize this moment to change the social ecology around what Netflix’s leadership views as ethical entertainment.”

While these demonstrations have become commonplace in Silicon Valley, where Facebook and Google employees have engaged in an open protest to draw attention to corporate policies, this is believed to be the first time that the pioneering company has video streaming.

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Even as it posted a record number of subscribers on Tuesday, fueled by the worldwide popularity of the South Korean thriller “Squid Game,” Netflix faces internal dissent over its handling of Chappelle’s stand-up show “The Closer.”

Sarandos further fueled the reaction with an Oct. 11 staff memo in which he acknowledged Chappelle’s provocative language but said he did not cross the line to incite violence. “We strongly believe that content on screen does not translate into real-world harm.”

It is not the first time that Netflix has attracted attention for content that crosses boundaries. The coming-of-age story “Cuties” was accused of hypersexualizing girls, and the teen suicide drama “13 Reasons Why” was blamed for a spike in teen suicides .

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The “The Closer” controversy plays out in the context of a company-wide diversity effort that began in 2018, after the former Netflix communications chief was fired for using a racial epithet at company meetings while arguing. offensive language in comedy. The stated goal, according to an inclusion report released in January, is to create a workplace where employees “feel like they have a home here. That belong “.

“It doesn’t feel good to have been working at the company that published that,” Terra Field, Netflix software engineer, wrote in a Medium post . “Especially when we’ve been developing the policies and benefits of the company for years to make it a great place for trans people to work.”