Who says we don’t? Well, apparently Jennie Nguyen thinks we don’t, if we also support racial equality and justice.
Bravo, a cable network owned by NBC Universal that specializes in reality TV shows aimed at women, fired Nguyen from “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” The Hill reported on Wednesday, January 26, 2022 (story here).
First of all, she doesn’t look like a “real” housewife to me. (Article continues below photo.) She looks like a TV star. A real housewife looks like this.
Fans called for Nguyen to be fired from the show after finding out about her “controversial social media posts,” Page Six, the gossip page of the New York Post, said here.
What’s behind this is Nguyen doesn’t like Black Lives Matter.
The Hill says she “posted anti-Black Lives Matter rhetoric on a now-deactivated page following protests over the murder of George Floyd, reportedly called BLM protesters thugs and taking a hardline stance against the racial justice protests,” and Page Six said she appeared to promote “White Lives Matter” in social media rants that spanned a 6-month period following Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
That period was marked by huge demonstrations across America against police brutality against black people, following a series of high-profile police killings of blacks, of which the George Floyd incident was only the latest and most publicized. The protests were so large — involving millions of people, including many whites — they were dubbed “a new civil rights movement.”
The protests enjoyed broad public sympathy and support, but they also provoked a racist backlash. BLM signs were defaced and vandalized, counter-demonstrators showed up, and there were some violent attacks against peaceful protesters, including the deadly Charlottesville car attack that left a woman protester dead.
Nguyen is neither white nor black. She’s a Vietnamese who immigrated to America as a child with her family, and I have no idea where she gets her racism from (she denies being racist), but I do know she’s a low-information blockhead. Either that, or she fried her brain on rightwing propaganda. It’s obvious from what she says.
In her social media rants, she referred to “BLM Thugs” and “Violent Gangs,” according to Page Six. In fact, the BLM protests that followed Floyd’s murder — there were more than 11,000 of them — were overwhelmingly peaceful; and where there was violence, it was far more likely to be committed by rightwing groups, or agitators like this guy, or the police themselves, than by the demonstrators (see article here).
There was sporadic looting, but that was by opportunistic criminals, not BLM protesters. And the worst violence by far was the dozens of car attacks against BLM protesters by rightwingers. So, when Nguyen claims BLM is a violent movement, she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.
But that’s not all. She also said “you have policemen out there signing their life away every day, to make a commitment to protect the community. What about showing that appreciation.”
First of all, they don’t sign their lives away, not one intends to do that, but they do face occupational risks, just as many other workers in hazardous occupations do.
And, frankly, these days, the greatest danger to cops is one they could easily avoid but subject themselves to by choice: Last year, far more cops were killed by Covid-19 than by criminals, road accidents, and other causes put together (details here). Police, influenced by rightwing politics, represent a major pool of vaccine holdouts.
If Nguyen is insinuating we don’t appreciate cops, she’s full of it. We appreciate them with good salaries, generous benefits and pensions, and plenty of community support. The police who do their jobs professionally and well deserve every bit of it. We depend on them for the safety of our communities, or at least those of us who aren’t gun-brandishing vigilantes do. BLM isn’t protesting against those cops. They’re protesting against rogue cops who murder black people.
Nguyen says, “I don’t support bad ones.” Really? Where’s the criticism of bad cops? In her social media rants, she made no attempt to distinguish between good and bad cops, or peaceful and violent protests. Instead, she put cops in a “good” basket and protests in a “bad” basket.
In this world, you have to make distinctions. There are good and bad mushrooms; some make tasty salad toppings, while others are deadly if you eat them. God gave us brains to differentiate. She displays no critical thinking skills. She’s a dogmatist of the mentally-lazy type.
She says, “I am proud to be able to say I have the freedom of speech to choose and to have an opinion.” Fine, as far as it goes, but I’d like to see her think more and run off at the mouth less. Judging from their reactions, it appears her former fans and employer would, too.