While Poehler reportedly gave “the quickest no in history” to the job offer, Comedy Central also reached out to another Amy entirely-Amy Schumer.
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Though Schumer did not reference the Guardian story specifically she cited the same quote about a “blind spot” and ended her Twitter essay with a plea for commentators to address more pressing race issues.
“I am a comic”, Schumer responded.
The comedian went on to say, “I will joke about things you like and I will joke about things you aren’t comfortable with”. One specific joke from Amy’s act the article mentions is “I used to date Latino guys”.
Now as the young comedian gears up for her feature film debut, shes opened up about a few other opportunities she was offered in the past year, one in particular, the hosting position of Comedy Centrals The Daily Show. That includes making dumb jokes about race. And I’ve never done anything safe or to make money for that reason. “You can call it a ‘blind spot for racism’ or ‘lazy’ but you are wrong. I know that because people laugh at it”.
Schumer ended her message by saying that she is not a racist, and her goal is that everyone is treated equally.
Here’s her post in full. “Move on to the next person who is more deserving of your scrutiny”. After all, she’s a comic who isn’t shy about cracking jokes on a variety of topics, including race, because playing with that topic is fun and “is a thing we are not supposed to do”, she says.
For such a keen observer of social norms and an effective satirist of the ways gender is complicated by them, Schumer has a shockingly large blind spot around race. But ultimately it’s the responsibility of the performer to handle their own material.
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The Guardian has a column up this weekend, written by Monica Heisey, who writes a lot about Schumer’s fantastic successes and ability to pull off “funny, feminist, mainstream entertainment”.
