- 11 Sep 2016 12:00
#14717186
Aside from the clusterfuck of insanity that is described in this article, funnier is Heat Street referring to this guy with a female pronoun. Just look at that picture.
The ‘Trans-phobic’ Wisecrack that Cost One Man his Job
By Ian Miles Cheong | 1:59 pm, September 6, 2016
There’s no appeasing the adherents of political correctness. When a content producer for the Magic: The Gathering organization TCGPlayer, Ali Aintrazi, made an inappropriate joke to someone at an event, he lost his job for it.
In his own public apology on Facebook, Aintrazi described how he “sexually harassed” a woman at the event when he jokingly asked her if he could “cop a feel.” Unbeknownst to him, the person he spoke to was a transgender woman named Amanda Stevens, and not simply a man in drag.
In his apology, Aintrazi says he did not intend to hurt this woman or to make her friends uncomfortable with his remark. Most of the letter consists of self-flagellation about how intent isn’t important and how he wishes to promote a safe space for anyone regardless of gender orientation.
“I’m sorry because what I did wasn’t just hurtful to trans women, like the woman I harassed, but to all women,” he wrote.
According to Stevens’ own account, Aintrazi approached her because he thought she was a man wearing a stuffed bra as a joke, and that he was joining in on the joke by making the inappropriate comment. It’s hard to imagine Stevens “passing” as a woman — something even Stevens herself admits.
“I’ll be honest. I don’t pass. I don’t have some delusion that I look like a normative cisgender female. I accept this. And as someone who also identifies as genderqueer, it is not something I am terribly concerned with. I don’t think Ali came up to me because he thought I was a cisgender woman,” she wrote on Medium.
Because she took offense, Stevens demanded Aintrazi be removed from the venue. In Stevens’ own recollection of the events, Aintrazi attempted to apologize, but she told him that his opportunity to apologize had long since passed.
“As the victim in the matter, I don’t owe Ali anything. I don’t have to accept his apology. I do not have to give him the benefit of the doubt. I don’t have to be someone’s teachable moment,” she wrote before going on to express her outrage about how his apology earned him unmerited commendations from his readers.
On Facebook, a transgender friend of Aintrazi’s wrote a long piece admonishing her friend for his supposed crime and supporting Stevens, who she says is only guilty of “snitching” and not responsible for TCGPlayer’s actions to suspend Aintrazi.
“It is important to understand that at the end of the day, what was done was not funny, was not a joke, and wasn’t tolerable,” she wrote. “It was sexual harassment, and a company decided to cut ties instead of save face with an employee.”
Other prominent voices within the community were quick to condemn Aintrazi, along with his apology, stating that it simply wasn’t enough and accused him of hiding his “transphobic assumptions.”
I like jokes, but if you fuck up this bad, your apology better OWN your transphobic assumptions, not hide them. https://t.co/FEb8iow8kY
— Matt Sperling (@mtg_law_etc) August 30, 2016
Based on only plausible reason Ali makes that joke, @sagegnosis is so much closer to reality on the facts of what happened than @AliEldrazi.
— Matt Sperling (@mtg_law_etc) August 30, 2016
"apologize & move on" is pretty shitty/silencing if the apologizer isn't giving an honest account of what happened. @sagegnosis @AliEldrazi
— Matt Sperling (@mtg_law_etc) August 30, 2016
As a result of the outcry, TCGPlayer has indefinitely suspended Aintrazi from his job in spite of his apology and clarification. The organization’s content director, Adam Styborski, sayss that he has since urged Aintrazi to reach out to the trans community to “understand their perspective and insight into the harm he caused, as well as share his informed thoughts through his large Facebook presence” and spread the Good News of social justice, no doubt.
Styborski says that the organization will “continue to be challenged to understand the harm he caused.” The organization has disabled comments on their announcement, stating: “This statement is not meant for discussion or debate.”
Transgender people are not a monolithic entity, but they’re certainly being treated as such—and organizations like TCGPlayer continue to infantilize adults who should know better than to feign offense at everything, especially when there was no intentional malice.
Heat Street
Aside from the clusterfuck of insanity that is described in this article, funnier is Heat Street referring to this guy with a female pronoun. Just look at that picture.
Someone stole my sig.
Forum-autist, coming through!
"Ack-Ack-Ack!"
Forum-autist, coming through!
"Ack-Ack-Ack!"
- By litwin
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- By ingliz