Taika Waititi Embarrasses Himself On Twitter Regarding Protests

[Cubo]

As much as I don't agree with condemning the looting and "violence" in this moment, and I'm very aware that Taika's place (and also mine) is just to understand and help the people that are suffering and fighting for their rights and lives right now, there is a sad truth to the "blurring lines" he talks about. Not specifically about looting an Urban Outfitters, but lines are actually blurring. We have been seeing it these days, and it will keep happening more.

We have seen lots of videos blaming white people (some of them supossedly white supremacists) for starting riots to get the police working, more or less credible reports of undercover police starting things up, organised anarchist groups taking advantage of the situation to spread chaos... and at the same time we hear how all this is done by black people as part of their rightful fight. In some moments it gets straight up contradictory.

I see this is inevitable, because it happens everywhere around the world when this kind of mass protests occur, and in the end it doesn't matter much, because right now the rioting is needed for things to change. But I hope the communities are already starting to find ways to plan and redirect their actions in more specific ways, before it starts to lose focus and other people take advantage of it. Maybe it's already happening and I'm not aware of it, it's hard to keep up with everything happening and from where I am, so feel free to educate me.

Stay safe and stay strong people. I really have hope this will be able to change things and make lives better for black people in your country.

 

[Illuvatar]

I think his take is quite popular amongst many and I don't see it as so controversial. I can understand where people looting are coming from and I don't think the damages are that big of a deal. But, in the end I don't believe it will have a positive effect on how the protests are seen by many.

Republicans would have criticised any form of protest, even without looting, but I'm guessing the looting is gonna turn away many sympathetic to the cause at hand.

I do find it ironic that we take a mildly controversial tweet from a director, make a big deal about it and then say that we don't want to hear from people like him or wonder who cares about his opinion.

 

[ZeoVGM]

Having seen the tone deaf Jojo Rabbit, I'd expect nothing less...

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You not understanding the film doesn't make it tone deaf.

This isn't the time or place for discussing that film's merits or lack thereof.

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lmao

You fucking brought it up.

 

[Deleted member 2533]

It's one step above, "but what about black on black violence." He has obvious and clear bias in the situation in that he has business and likely family/friends in law enforcement to protect. After decades of seeing peaceful protests fail, a decade of your own effort if you were involved in BLM from the start, what are people left to do?They have worked hard and voted on progressive politicians at all levels in many of these cities who make platitudes about reforming the police and getting rid of the bad apples. But, at the same time the apples never really leave even after years of working to increase voter turnout while fighting on the front lines with peaceful protests and in court. Then you're presented with the same speeches for the nth time and you know nothing will really happen. Non-violence and violence go hand in hand. For a March on Washington you had a Watts Riot.

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Killer Mike's refrain, basically to "vote harder" recalls to me the same promises of tax cuts trickling down. The system works, but we're not seeing the benefits because we didn't cut taxes enough.

Problem in the community? Vote. Didn't get solved? Vote more. Problem in the economy? Tax cuts. Didn't get solved? Cut more.

It's the famous "definition of insanity." Voting is very important, but the notion of do nothing but vote, is akin to that of the government being poor at all services, therefore the only thing they can do to improve the economy is to give that money back via tax reduction. Clearly voting isn't enough, so people have to do something else as well.

 

[XaviConcept]

From looking at the recent tweets, seems like he got it.

 

[Volimar]

From looking at the recent tweets, seems like he got it.

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I think so too.

 

[JamRock7]

What does looters mean? Please be more specific.

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...you want me to specify what looters means? This tactic of being deliberately obtuse is getting old

 

[Illuvatar]

There are dozens of vigorously negative film reviews that explain why it's a hugely problematic film. This isn't the time or place for discussing that film's merits or lack thereof.

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There are plenty of topics on the matter that you can join. This one is about a trivial tweet from Taika, so I think discussing his previous views on such matters is not Off-topic. Also, you brought it up. If you make such a claim, don't expect me to go and look for why that is...
I watched the movie, thought it had some brilliant parts and the idea was well carried out.
I know we like to shit on anyone remotely famous here, but let's try to at least back-up our reasons before we throw him the flaming pit.

 

[Midgarian]

Why does he feel he needs to commentate on this, much less make jokes?! Unbelievable.

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He and his ethnic group can relate and feel solidarity with what it feels like to be an oppressed minority ethnic group in an English speaking post-colonial country.

 

[Icolin]

Having seen the tone deaf Jojo Rabbit, I'd expect nothing less...

But even still... a shocking inability to read the room and a gross willingness to trivialize real-time suffering.

Shame on him.

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i totally agree with your take on jojo rabbit, infantilizing nazis or treating them as clumsy fools really really didn't sit right with me

There are plenty of topics on the matter that you can join. This one is about a trivial tweet from Taika, so I think discussing his previous views on such matters is not Off-topic. Also, you brought it up.
I watched the movie, thought it had some brilliant parts and the idea was well carried out.
I know we like to shit on anyone remotely famous here, but at least back-up your reasons.

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i feel like this kind of nails it for me:

Jojo Rabbit has proudly billed itself as an "anti-hate satire," and while I'm all for eradicating prejudice, if there's anyone that deserves to be hated, it's Nazis. It's an even bigger stretch to call it a satire. Waititi has, so far, found significant success with his Kiwi brand of wholesome humor with films like What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople, each of which finds laughter in the innocuous. But when entrenched in World War II Germany, his off-kilter comedy doesn't quite land. The film recycles the same "Heil, Hitler!" joke too many times to count—as if great punchlines were hard to come by—and it rarely rises above making a too-basic mockery of the far-right. Jojo Rabbit isn't so much provocative as it is the feel-good Nazi crowd-pleaser of the year.

Look no further than the Hitler Youth leaders who are depicted as nothing more than idiotic buffoons—as if Nazis are so stupid that they just accidentally ordered the mass execution of Jews. This group includes Alfie Allen, Rebel Wilson and Sam Rockwell (who just can't seem to stop playing racists). I get what the film is trying to achieve here: that the worst insult you can give to the alt-right is that they are all clowns. But by the time Germany's loss turns from a likelihood to a reality, the film can't help but succumb to a "good on both sides" narrative.

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'Jojo Rabbit' Finds Humor in the Third Reich

Taika Waititi pulls double duty as director and star, playing a child’s imaginary friend in the form of Hitler.

www.gq.com

 

[pechorin]

...you want me to specify what looters means? This tactic of being deliberately obtuse is getting old

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It's called context, I'm sure you realize words by themselves don't really mean much...so why are you acting obtuse?

 

[IMCaprica]

The amount of white people on twitter trying to explain Taika's tweets to black people is really gross. The man is rich and an adult. He can speak for himself, and as of right now he's decided not to. So that's where he chose to leave it.

You not understanding the film doesn't make it tone deaf.

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Not really relevant to this topic but that poster's sentiment is not unheard of for that movie, particularly from people whose lane it is to speak on that subject.

 

[AcademicSaucer]

Why even comment?

 

[Hark]

He and his ethnic group can relate and feel solidarity with what it feels like to be an oppressed minority ethnic group in an English speaking post-colonial country.

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What is he contributing to the conversation, though?

 

[KingM]

And if history truly does repeat the violence isn't going to do jack squat either. We do end up hurting people we didn't intend to do though or who are not at fault.

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It makes the alternative of non-violence the preferred negotiating step. Throughout the last 100 or so years of non-violence movements this has almost always been the case. Be it in the USA for civil and gay rights, South Africa or India.
In non-violence people not at fault are hurt. When dogs were sicked on elementary school children people were hurt. Having a hose turned on you with enough pressure to rend skin is pain. Seeing the cop who gunned down your son and planeted a gun on him is violence.
There is an expectation that the oppressed and those suffering should never lash out and be perfect victims so that the world can see. . The world has seen and has no need to, after all they'll show up date after day to pepperballs and rubber bullets in the face and cause no harm to anyone.
When there is the expectation that there will be immediate physical consequences conceding to demands from peaceful protestors becomes more appealing. The idea of non-violence being a solution that always works ignores reality and focuses on a very rose tinted view of the Civil Right Movement, among others, that have long and complex relationships with self defense, violence, and even riots that involve looting and property destruction.

 

[WrenchNinja]

Interesting how a thread is made about him and not James Gunn

 

[Lone]

Interesting how a thread is made about him and not James Gunn

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I will gladly make a thread about his behind too. This isn't an either/or situation. Any non-black person who is telling black people how to feel can go straight in the trash.

 

[Midgarian]

What is he contributing to the conversation, though?

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Yes I suppose it can come across as "Parachute Tweeting".

I do agree with some other posters that it looks like he is referring specifically to those that are hijacking the protest's agenda. That's why he called them "protestors" with the speech marks. And those posters suggest the target demographic of the store being referred to is White people.

I will gladly make a thread about his behind too. This isn't an either/or situation. Any non-black person who is telling black people how to feel can go straight in the trash.

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Despite the fact that Taika's ethnic group can relate to the struggle of being an ethnic minority in a White English speaking majority country? (in their case in their indigenous lands).

 

[rude]

Interesting how a thread is made about him and not James Gunn

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What did he do?

 

[SageShinigami]

Killer Mike's refrain, basically to "vote harder" recalls to me the same promises of tax cuts trickling down. The system works, but we're not seeing the benefits because we didn't cut taxes enough.

Problem in the community? Vote. Didn't get solved? Vote more. Problem in the economy? Tax cuts. Didn't get solved? Cut more.

It's the famous "definition of insanity." Voting is very important, but the notion of do nothing but vote, is akin to that of the government being poor at all services, therefore the only thing they can do to improve the economy is to give that money back via tax reduction. Clearly voting isn't enough, so people have to do something else as well.

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This is a garbage analogy. Tax cuts don't solve a motherfucking thing. 16 year old Sage when he heard "trickle down economics" was able to figure out that no, you wouldn't give that money to the poor, you'd just have more money for yourself. voting on the other hand does and can work. But most people vote once every four years and call it a day. Killer Mike didn't say only vote. He had other suggestions as well. He brought up examples of Atlanta doing other things besides voting. Ya'll heard what ya'll wanted to hear, and a suspicious number of people on the first page are fine with black businesses burning down.

 

[RocketKiss]

Urban outfitters would never sell a shirt for 3 dollars.

 

[RastaMentality]

 

[Lone]

Yes I suppose it can come across as "Parachute Tweeting".

I do agree with some other posters that it looks like he is referring specifically to those that are hijacking the protest's agenda. That's why he called them "protestors" with the speech marks. And those posters suggest the target demographic of the store being referred to is White people.


Despite the fact that Taika's ethnic group can relate to the struggle of being an ethnic minority in a White English speaking majority country? (in their case in their indigenous lands).

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Yes. Despite that fact.

Don't tell black people how to feel. PeriodT. He can empathize, and that's not to take away from what he and his people have gone through, but people need to stop telling us what to do. We've been told what to do for far too long.

 

[Huncho_Houdini]

All of his tweets together don't seem that bad or controversial at all. He's critical of the cops and saying there are bad actors mixed in with the protesters.

 

[Illuvatar]

i totally agree with your take on jojo rabbit, infantilizing nazis or treating them as clumsy fools really really didn't sit right with me



i feel like this kind of nails it for me:

'Jojo Rabbit' Finds Humor in the Third Reich

Taika Waititi pulls double duty as director and star, playing a child’s imaginary friend in the form of Hitler.

www.gq.com

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If that is what you (or any reviewer with this take for that matter) get out of the movie, I do think you wildly misunderstood what the movie was trying to say.
I know everyone has it's own interpretation, but this does seem to miss the mark quite a bit.

I understood the buffoonery from the youth leaders to be the way that Jojo looks at the whole situation from his perspective . He doesn't see the Nazi's for what they are, because he is a child, even worse a brainwashed child. He sees the nazi's as his friends.
The nazi's aren't supposed to be seen as clowns.
But, the cognitive dissonance within him can't keep up as the actions he tries to justify, at a point don't make sense anymore. That's why the Nazis he interacts with become more and more clownish as the movies progresses.

At the same time, the reality of the atrocities happening is clear in the film however: people hanged in the middle of the street and other instances as well make that very clear.
It's less a political film, as it is a movie about how a child copes with things around him that he doesn't fully understand and comes to terms with the reality in which he lives.



Edit: my point being: Taika, shut-up about something you don't fully understand. But, let's not go to far, the man does seem to have a good track record so far. It's not because he is is rich and famous, he must absolutely be an asshole.

 

[JasonV]

How has no one found Ja Rule to make sense of all of this yet?

 

[Deleted member 64609]

Yes I suppose it can come across as "Parachute Tweeting".

I do agree with some other posters that it looks like he is referring specifically to those that are hijacking the protest's agenda. That's why he called them "protestors" with the speech marks. And those posters suggest the target demographic of the store being referred to is White people.


Despite the fact that Taika's ethnic group can relate to the struggle of being an ethnic minority in a White English speaking majority country? (in their case in their indigenous lands).

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Theoretically being able to relate isn't necessarily relating or even understanding.

 

[Addleburg]

I do find it ironic that we take a mildly controversial tweet from a director, make a big deal about it and then say that we don't want to hear from people like him or wonder who cares about his opinion.

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Exactly. Taika Waititi is a director, not a political activist, politician, or someone who has any special importance in the black community. I'm not sure why we're conferring extra weight to his comments given the vastness of Twitter and the volume of everyone and their mama currently tweeting about this situation.

Even within this thread there seems to be division as to whether he's downplaying the justification for looting, or whether he's calling out bad actors who are pretending to be protestors, but are actually just there to stir the pot. Regardless of his intent, I'm not expecting him to have the most nuanced or worthwhile take on all of this.

 

[twofold]

Why didn't you link this tweet too?

 

[Dullahan]

Goddamnit Taika, not you too. T_T

 

[Lone]

Why didn't you link this tweet too?

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I wasn't made aware of it. But that's nice.

Still not happy with his other tweets, and I'm very clearly not the only one.

 

[Fallout-NL]

Everyone is angry but there is a way to direct that anger

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By turning the other cheek, right? Man fuck off.

 

[Hamchan]

His whole twitter account seems super left and supportive of minorities.

 

[Icolin]

Exactly. Taika Waititi is a director, not a political activist, politician, or someone who has any special importance in the black community. I'm not sure why we're conferring extra weight to his comments given the vastness of Twitter and the volume of everyone and their mama currently tweeting about this situation.

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his outsider naivety is precisely why there should be extra weight conferred, that's the type of misnomer shit that impedes progress

also he's a multi-millionaire, i'm sure he'll still be fine if people on twitter.com or a gaming forum call him out on his tonedeaf bullshit

 

[twofold]

I wasn't made aware of it. But that's nice.

Still not happy with his other tweets, and I'm very clearly not the only one.

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So you didn't go to his twitter page and read any of his other tweets? Your first instinct was to come here and link the tweets in the OP?

The BLM donation tweet was made a few hours before the ones you linked, so it would have taken little to no effort to be "made aware of it", certainly less than it would have taken to make this thread.

 

[Deleted member 45414]

Celebrities coming in with the piping hot takes is a really, really mixed bag.

 

[overcast]

I think he was criticizing people taking advantage of this situation to loot, but don't know or care enough about his perspective on the matter. Probably better to be clearer or keep quiet in a time like this.

 

[Icolin]

Celebrities coming in with the piping hot takes is a really, really mixed bag.

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it comes with the territory, a lot of them live sheltered lives and totally miss out on the nuances & realities of the situation. that and also there's nowhere near as much at stake for them given their class

 

[denseWorm]

I'm not sure how he's embarrassed himself.. is the point that he seems to be against destroying property, but the Killer Mike video is enthusiastic about.. something?

I'm sorry, I've been pretty distracted today but I'm not getting this... Killer Mike appears to say he doesn't want buildings burned, he wants institutions dismantled/"burned".. so it seems like both of those tweets have a consistent anti-physical destruction sentiment? Or have i missed something?

For the record, watched the whole Killer Mike video, it was real good, so good in fact that you can only imagine how good Martin Luther King Jr must have been~ (which is not to imply anything bad about Killer Mike's effort)

 

[Deleted member 6230]

So you didn't go to his twitter page and read any of his other tweets? Your first instinct was to come here and link the tweets in the OP?

The BLM donation tweet was made a few hours before the ones you linked, so it would have taken little to no effort to be "made aware of it", certainly less than it would have taken to make this thread.

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Wtf is this? Op didn't frame the thread as "Taika Waititi is fucking trash" they're just calling out a tweet he made

 

[ZeroX]

as I've mentioned before, Taika's an asshole and treats people like shit.

he's also had some questionable behavior in regards to race. [edited out a questionable statement]

 

[Lone]

So you didn't go to his twitter page and read any of his other tweets? Your first instinct was to come here and link the tweets in the OP?

The BLM donation tweet was made a few hours before the ones you linked, so it would have taken little to no effort to be "made aware of it", certainly less than it would have taken to make this thread.

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BLM donation tweets are the bare minimum so.

 

[Kwigo]

Oh hell no

Burn the whole country down if you need to, this shit needs to stop.

 

[Deleted member 14459]

Relevant (not some twitter rando but well-known organizer and researcher of black resistance)

 

[Deleted member 543]

I'm not sure how he's embarrassed himself.. is the point that he seems to be against destroying property, but the Killer Mike video is enthusiastic about.. something?

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He's embarrassing himself because he's calling out oppressed people for committing a relatively minor offence (i.e. not a fucking offence at all in the circumstances). Putting prostestors in scare quotes, using Urban Outfitters and $3 tees as an example is all meant to point out the absurdity of looting - in a way which completely undermines the protest itself.

I mean, I think it's safe to say he's trying to make a joke and isn't being malicious - but he's exercising no self-awareness in doing so, especially as the joke fuels myths which exist to limit people's ability to protest in the first place.

 

[Lone]

He's embarrassing himself because he's calling out oppressed people for committing a relatively minor offence (i.e. not a fucking offence at all in the circumstances). Putting prostestors in scare quotes, using Urban Outfitters and $3 tees as an example is all meant to point out the absurdity of looting - in a way which completely undermines the protest itself.

I mean, I think it's safe to say he's trying to make a joke and isn't being malicious - but he's exercising no self-awareness in doing so, especially as the joke fuels myths which exist to limit people's ability to protest in the first place.

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Again. Thank you.

 

[denseWorm]

He's embarrassing himself because he's calling out oppressed people for committing a relatively minor offence (i.e. not a fucking offence at all in the circumstances). Putting prostestors in scare quotes, using Urban Outfitters and $3 tees as an example is all meant to point out the absurdity of looting - in a way which completely undermines the protest itself.

I mean, I think it's safe to say he's trying to make a joke and isn't being malicious - but he's exercising no self-awareness in doing so, especially as the joke fuels myths which exist to limit people's ability to protest in the first place.

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Cheers for the reply :) Well, i think i see where you're coming from. As a (part?) Maori he probably experienced pretty horrific racism throughout his life, so I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.. I'm with you, I'm on the side of the minorities.

 

[Icolin]

goddamn this roast in the replies lmao

 

[Deleted member 6230]

Cheers for the reply :) Well, i think i see where you're coming from. As a (part?) Maori he probably experienced pretty horrific racism throughout his life, so I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.. I'm with you, I'm on the side of the minorities.

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It's okay. He said something fucked up and is rightfully being criticized for it. That's it.

 

[Nesotenso]

I wasn't made aware of it. But that's nice.

Still not happy with his other tweets, and I'm very clearly not the only one.

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Are these the battles you want to get into?
should we really exhaust energy on stuff like this? Dissect every single tweet of someone, most likely, on your side?