One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Amy Schumer Responds To Her Critics: 'I Am Not Racist'
Comedian Amy Schumer at Tribeca Talks in New York City (Photo by Robin Marchant/Getty Images for the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Amy Schumer has become the Internet's darling over the past year, especially for her pointed skits and jokes that take on Hollywood's institutional sexism and rape culture. However, you can't please everyone.On Sunday morning the Inside Amy Schumer star tweeted a response to her critics, prefacing it with "put down your torches before reading this so you don't catch on fire":
"I go in and out of playing an irreverent idiot," wrote Schumer. "That includes making dumb jokes involving race." Although the note is addressed to no one in particular, her mention of her supposed "blind spot to race" and the timing of her note make it obvious it was in response to a piece in The Guardian. While it wasn't the most critical piece (it ends by saying, "[H]er widespread popularity and apparently endlessly rising star suggests that Schumer is providing something we’ve been hungry for: a walking, talking, occasionally farting counter-argument to the idea that feminists aren’t funny."), it points out areas of Schumer's routines that have come under fire before.
A Daily Dot piece last week called her out for not being "as feminist as the internet thinks," and a joke she said about Latin women at the MTV Movie Awards this year was negatively received by viewers (including J. Lo). Her "Milk Milk Lemonade" video was criticized by some for its use of black women's bodies.
Despite this criticism, Schumer said she would not be toning it down. "I am not going to start joking about safe material," she wrote. "And don’t ask that of me. I love what I do and won’t let anyone take that away. I ask you to resist the urge to pick me apart."
"Move on to the next person who is more deserving of your scrutiny and not the girl in your corner," she concludes, after saying she is a "devout feminist and lover of all people."
On Friday it was revealed in an interview with the Daily Beast that Schumer was offered the role of being the next Daily Show host. The role went to Trevor Noah, who also came under scrutiny for old jokes on his Twitter account.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
