It’s become cliché. Social justice warriors scour the internet looking for any and every excuse to pounce. And, usually — whatever public figure is in their crosshairs chooses to slump over and apologize.
There was director Brett Ratner’s embarrassing apology tour after offending GLAAD while promoting “Tower Heist.” More recently, there was Matt Damon, who couldn’t even muster up the courage to fight back against Lena Dunham’s promotion of the vandalization of “Jason Bourne” movie posters in the name of gun control.
Trolls are quick to jump on anything and everything today.
Director Tim Burton found himself in the same waters this week while promoting his new film “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.”
Hit with comments that his film’s cast was not diverse enough, Burton said he was tired of political correctness infecting art.
“Nowadays, people are talking about it more, [but] things either call for things, or they don’t,” he told Bustle.com. “I remember back when I was a child watching ‘The Brady Bunch’ and they started to get all politically correct, like, OK, let’s have an Asian child and a black — I used to get more offended by that than just — I grew up watching blaxploitation movies, right? And I said, ‘That’s great.’ I didn’t go like, ‘OK, there should be more white people in these movies.'”
Immediately Twitter pounced on him, the PC police out in full force.
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Famed tattoo artist and reality television star Kat Von D also came under fire recently. And she is breaking the mold by biting back at her politically correct critics.
When Von D posted an innocent picture from her Instagram account showing her artistry team, one commenter couldn’t help but point out everyone’s similar shade of color. “Would be cool to see more ethnic diversity represented in the artistry team!” said the commenter.
Instead of foreseeing the firestorm of politically correct trolls headed her way and choosing to jump in apology waters, Von D took a stand. “Diversity? We have American, Canadian, Dutch, Mexican, Australian, and Argentinian? Not sure what is lacking in ‘diversity’ here,” she wrote in response.
She had a point. Her comment highlighted the rather narrow-minded definition of diversity some have these days. She continued by defending her hiring policies, saying decisions to take people on should be based on their work, rather than their ethnicity.
“And as for true diversity, I have put together an artistry team that is diverse in each artist’s approach to makeup. This group’s experience, talent and hard work in the beauty world speaks for itself and covers the entire spectrum of style and technique,” she wrote.
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The original commenter defensively stuck by her position, saying, “There are also amazing makeup artists with deeper skin tones out there too and it’d be awesome to see them included in the future. Not knocking these gals at all, they’re all awesome at what they do! Just hoping you can see where people of other skin tones/races may feel less included/not as represented.”
Von D was already fired up, though, and ready to take on challenges to her feelings toward race with force.
“Based on the comments left on this thread, no one has voiced feeling ‘left out’ or ‘not being represented.’ So I find it a bit strange that you (someone with a lighter tone) is trying to voice an issue on behalf of those you say may have a problem, when the reality is, that there is no problem.”
It’s refreshing to see a public figure refuse to kneel down to her politically correct critics.
She added, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but the only reason I’m responding to you is that I believe your sort of commenting is counterproductive to actual real issues out in the world today.”
Von D’s fiery response didn’t help her. Plenty more aggressive social justice warriors jumped on the case. Next up on the chopping block for critics were the foundation tones Von D’s cosmetic line pushes.
Plenty of pictures circled Instagram with critics calling for Von D to offer more tones for darker-skinned women. “The issue is the EXTREME range of nearly identical white shades and the tiny range of dark shades offered. People are upset because of the discrepancy,” wrote one commenter.
“Kat is free to hire whoever she feels is best for her company, and she has a right to do so. But considering the fact that her foundation range has a plethora of colors for people lighter than a brown paper bag but still remains woefully lacking for anyone darker, perhaps she should take a step back from criticizing people looking for more diversity on her team,” wrote Yahoo’s Jihan Forbes.
She continued, “It’s clear that Von D, from her artistry team down to her foundation range, has a color problem.”
Like many frothing at the mouth attacks from politically correct trolls, the issues with Von D’s makeup shades were baseless. Von D recently expanded the shades offered through her line and was already working on providing more, mostly darker, ones. It only would have taken a little research and a little thought, but social justice warriors typically only like to attack — thought is not usually their strong suit.
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On her makeup offerings, Von D said in an interview with Hello! Magazine, “I’m proud of the versatility of my colors and formulations. My mom uses it, and when I meet my fans on-counter they are every age, every style, every skin color and that is really rewarding.”
Standing up for herself may not have silenced the critics, but it’s refreshing to see a public figure refuse to kneel down to the politically correct crowd. There will be no apology tour for Von D.
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