Rant & Response: Is Tracy Morgan Being Made An Example?

What Exactly is Tracy Morgan Apologizing For and What Was the Ultimate Message Behind Tina Fey's Response to the Controversy?
By Gerlyne Deneuve Maitre

Tracy Morgan seems to be on an apology tour after he made some homophobic comments while performing stand-up at Nashville, TN. 
 

"Gay is something that kids learn from the media and programming.”

He went on further, explaining exactly what he would do if his son was a gay: 

"Better talk to me like a man and not in a gay voice or I'll pull out a knife and stab that little n****r to death" 

(TMZ reports).

"30 Rock" creator Tina Fey said in a statement that "It also doesn't line up with the Tracy Morgan I know, who is not a hateful man and is generally much too sleepy and self-centered to ever hurt another person." 

Now, let me say this before anything else: she may honestly feel that way about Tracy Morgan; as a friend and co-worker, not to mention as an asset to a hit show of which she happens to be the executive producer. That said, I laughed; at first uttering something like how well could she really know Tracy Morgan to say ‘the Tracy that I know?’ I might have also said bitch. When I first read the word sleepy, of course I assumed like most people that she meant that he is tired, because after all, actors work very long shifts. However, after my friend substituted ‘sleepy’ with ‘lazy’ immediately afterward, I reexamined her statement, I thought, wait a minute…sleepy might indeed mean lazy, because lazy is a stereotype that black people have been fighting off for years. That’s when I was really interested in this hot mess of a story, like please tell me more.

Black people are said to be lazy in order to justify the fact that even more than a century after slavery was abolished, we are still struggling and highly dependent on a broken system to say the least. Although his race was never mentioned in any of the statements that I have read and he is not being called a ‘nigger,’ what does his sleepiness have to do with what he said? Could he not be sleepy and utter the same homophobic sentences? Could you not know him and yet sense that deep within he is secretly a bigot? The words of Tina Fey seem to have been carefully selected for that statement; words chosen to make a point perhaps. Sleepy is usually not a word that would be used for describing why someone could not have perpetrated such a deed. “He was too sleepy to rob the bank.” What is the correlation between getting enough sleep and having enough energy to say something hateful?

She continues, ”I hope for his sake that Tracy's apology will be accepted as sincere by his gay and lesbian coworkers at '30 Rock,' without whom Tracy would not have lines to say, clothes to wear, sets to stand on, scene partners to act with, or a printed-out paycheck from accounting to put in his pocket”. 

Essentially, she is letting everyone know that Tracy Morgan cannot hurt her show because she is not only too powerful to be brought down by that guy, but she can end his career with a snap of her finger. However, if he still wants crummy crumbs, then he better not have hurt their ratings. Otherwise he will go down by himself. Even though he has worked on the show, the minute he does something they feel embarrasses them and their image, it is no longer a team, he becomes an individual and a liability, and he stands alone. She lets everyone know that NBC hires gays and lesbians, perhaps because she wants to prove that NBC is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and as executive producer she believes in equality by association. It is like saying, “we are not homophobic, point your fingers to him.” 

It also may have a double meaning; letting him know that there are too many gays in the industry he’s potentially offended to even think that finding a job in television will be easy in the future. It is an economic threat to Morgan, saying that if the NBC team does not view his apology as sincere that they might fire him. Fey’s qualifier, ”for his sake” implies that he and only he has a lot to lose. What else is there to lose other than your job? Whether or not his gay and lesbian co-workers accept his apology, in the end it is about ratings and how this incident affects the show. Even his gay co-workers cannot possibly believe that if the show’s ratings increased that Morgan is going anywhere anytime soon. She basically states that it is purely about the bottom line; we pay you, we give you a paycheck, don’t embarrass us because those checks don’t write themselves and they may cease. We can make you poor if you fuck with our little show that is so very popular and generates many advertising dollars.

Although Morgan is going on those tours apologizing, we have to wonder if it is a sincere apology, or a career-saving (and show-saving) publicity tour sanctioned by his offended and now-vulnerable employers. One has to wonder why he is apologizing for something he said with such conviction. This is not the first time he’s intimated such beliefs; he apparently believed in what he said, so how can he sincerely be sorry? If NBC is encouraging him to apologize, do they really believe that he is not homophobic? Why should he apologize when it appears he is apologizing simply so that he can work in the industry in the future? Why should he apologize if NBC knows that if the ratings drop, they will probably write him out of the show somehow or replace him by the next dance-for-chicken black character? An apology should not be something that others compel one to do for their own sake.

Actually, someone who is mocking them with an insincere apology in order to keep his job and the status quo safe should outrage the gay and lesbian community. The tone of NBC in their statements regarding the incident seems to be about the bottom line and not so much about supporting gay and lesbian rights. If they were more concerned about their pro gay image, he would have been terminated immediately. They want to see what happens to the ratings before they make a decision because there does not seem to be urgency on their part. Tina Fey saying ‘for his sake’ implies someone waiting to make a decision. Threatening to cut your son’s throat would have gotten a lot of people at the network fired up, why should Tracy Morgan be any different? Is it not OK now because he is not just acting those race stereotypes that people love and now has broadened the insults so to speak? So it was OK when he offended me as a black woman with his characterizations?

If NBC is primarily interested in the bottom line, then they should not be the ones to scold Tracy Morgan. Here is what I think of Tracy: what he said was irresponsible. He was wrong because making assumptions about homosexuality and that it is a choice rather than biological is wrong. When I first heard this story, I thought, is he stupider than I thought? However, working for perhaps one of the most pro-gay and lesbian large corporations on the planet and making gay jokes and ridiculing their lifestyle is unwise and a slap to the face to his bosses in a ‘don’t bite the hand that feeds you’ kind of way. His so-called joke was not funny and took on a nasty turn not simply because he made homophobic remarks, but by the violent imagery that followed. This country does not need another incident of suicide or murder because a bad comedian thought he was being funny by making a personal issue that should have been left between him and his son a public rant. Also, while many people, not myself personally, condone his statement; he was out of line for his use of the N-word in combination with violence. The N word can often have a different connotation when a black person uses it and black people tried to give it less power by overusing it with each other. I seldom use that word because I never want to use it like Morgan did, reinforcing the hate that drove the ultimate meaning of that term.

In the end, Tina Fey might have been angry. When people are angry, they can say things that hit home. This isn’t a home run ‘race vs. sexuality’ issue. No one knows for sure if Morgan is being looked upon as a black man or just an individual who did something bad or stupid. However to have hired a walking stereotype to begin with is where it is perplexing and should be called into question when Fey makes the type of statements she did in response to such an ugly incident. Were there not other talented black men in Hollywood with more accomplishments to have been the token black man that is required for every show? Is it not the networks’ responsibility to discuss what is an appropriate representation of their image with an actor before hiring him or her? If the networks need to cover their butt, then they should know who they are hiring.

At any rate, a few questions can be analyzed. Does sexuality trump race? Was it OK when Morgan was acting like a clown during his stand up comedy shows when he perpetuated stereotypes and made some people of his own race cringe? What exactly happened during all this time that now makes people go from laughing out loud to being outraged?