The Left has put some of its most vocal adherents in an awkward position.
If you can claim minority status, you are free to celebrate your achievements, such as Ali Stroker, who won a Tony Award on Sunday for her role in “Oklahoma!” and made history by accepting it in a wheelchair.
But if you’re Bryan Cranston, it doesn’t matter how many “Breaking Bad” fans are out there. It doesn’t matter that he won a Tony Award for playing fictional TV news anchorman Howard Beale in “Network.” He’s old and white, so he felt compelled, apparently, to apologize for his identity.
“Finally, a straight, old, white man gets a break!” Cranston quipped at the start of his acceptance speech.
Bryan Cranston celebrates his #TonyAwards win: “Finally a straight old white men gets a break!” https://t.co/BBil26xd5W pic.twitter.com/r5CjbUirl4
— Variety (@Variety) June 10, 2019
That moment was probably the most political of the night, which has tamed since the great Robert De Niro breakdown. So Cranston even rounded out his apology tour with a shot at Trump.
“I would like to dedicate this to all the real journalists around the world, both in … the print media and also broadcast media, who actually are in the line of fire with their pursuit of the truth,” he said. “The media is not the enemy of the people. Demagoguery is the enemy of the people.”
Yawn. The entertainment industry’s crusade against the Trump administration is getting boring, and so is its battle against “rich, white, straight men.” You can’t really blame Cranston, though, for feeling like he had to start his speech with a crack at his own identity. He just did what straight, old, white men are expected to do these days.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., a little-known presidential candidate, tried a similar tactic, though he received scorn after an interview with “Vice News” in which he explained away his whiteness.
I may be “another white guy,” but I know where there are gaps in my knowledge or my experience and I know when to pass the mic. pic.twitter.com/jMYBwF97xY
— Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) May 27, 2019
“Well, a white guy who doesn’t see other identities, or understand other experiences should not be president. I do,” he said. “And where there would be gaps in my knowledge or my experience, I will pass the mic to people who do have that experience.”
The “pass the mic” problem arrives when instead of questioning whether someone deserves an award or a new position, you ask whether their demographic does. Celebrating people of different backgrounds — like Stroker, who was paralyzed as a child after a car crash — is as important in politics as it is in the entertainment industry. But that doesn’t mean everyone else has to feel guilty.
It helps no one to encourage people to apologize for their identities. That’s all they can do, anyway. Just like marginalized people have been arguing for decades, you can’t change who you are.
