I barely heard about this story and am
surprised that it didn't make more news. That is why I write this
nonsense. An author of children books aimed at Black children
Jacqueline Woodson received a National Book Award for her book Brown
Girl Dreaming. After accepting the award author Daniel Handler who is
best known for his Lemony Snicket novels got up to tell what he
thought would be a funny joke.
Now, before I get to what he said I
need to just say this to you, the reader, and I want you to share
this information with your friends: read the room. You can't just say
whatever comes to mind or whatever you think is funny and expect
everyone to agree with you.
So Handler began by saying “I told
Jackie she was going to win. And I said that if she won, I would tell
all of you something I learned about her this summer which is that
Jackie Woodson is allergic to watermelon. Just let that sink in your
mind.”
This is the point where a record should
skip in your brain. But not Handler. If anything he is committed to a
punchline. He continued after saying that he told Woodson that she
should put that in a book of hers. He stated “I said, 'I'm only
writing a book about a black girl who's allergic to watermelon if I
get a blurb from you, Cornel West, Toni Morrison and Barack Obama
saying 'This guy's okay, this guy's fine.'”
Of course people were upset by his
statement. Everyone knows what he meant by his joke and if they
didn't his “Just let that sink into your mind” helped them along.
Of course he went on Twitter and apologized.
It sucks when someone can ruin
something nice by their actions or what they say. This guy totally
fucked up this lady's award by saying what he did. I'm not even
offended by what he said so much as I hate bad comedy and when people
steal sunshine from others. If you look up Woodson all you see is the
fact that Handler said what he did and really nothing about the
author herself until after a page of searches. I'm not suggesting
that Handler retire from writing or issue more apologies. They just
need to bring back pubic shaming and let a lot of people throw
watermelons at him.
Click here for previous While You Were
Sleeping.
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