Amber Tamblyn talks about changing David Cross's perspective on racism and #MeToo campaign
American filmmaker, actress, and poet, Amber Tamblyn admitted that her husband, David Cross, was rightfully accused by comedian Charlyne Yi over a racists statement. Yi posted on Twitter a series of threads, claiming that Cross had been indecent enough to crack racist jokes at her when they met 10 years ago.
The thread reads: "I think about the first time I met David Cross ten years ago & he made fun of my pants (that were tattered because I was poor). Dumbfounded, I stared at him speechless and he said to me "what's a matter? You don't speak English?? Ching-chong-ching-chong...then after he saw I was offended he asked me if I was going to fight with him karate in a southern accent. Then a few years later he was re-introduced to me after my comedy show with his girlfriend at the time & he said: "Hi nice to meet you"."
Foster later replied to the Tweet saying that he had no idea about the incident that the comedian was referring to. He replied by saying, "Charlene, I don't remember this at all! It's bonkers to me and WAY, way out of character. DM me so I can understand all of this".
When Tamblyn appeared on NPR's 'It's Been a Minute' with host Sam Sanders, she said that the jokes which work on white people might not be very appropriate for people of color. "He was rightfully accused of doing something racist to the comedian, Charlyne Yi,” Tamblyn said. “You know I think the jokes that work for white guys and their white guy comedian friends don’t work, always, for women of color.” She said that she had helped Cross learn his lesson and that he needed to change his perspective.
Amber Tamblyn had played the role of Tibby in the 2005 comedy drama 'The Sisterhood of Travelling Pants', and has also played the lead character on CBS drama 'Joan of Arcadia'. She later became the founder of Hollywood's Time's Up Movement which was started as a follow-up to #MeToo in order to support victims of sexual harassment in the workplace. In her new novel, 'Any Man', she brings down the general notions about sexual harassment, her own experience in the #MeToo campaign, and her struggle to change social perspectives on these matters.
In the interview with NPR when she was asked as to why her book deals with the perspective of male survivors of sexual assault, she replied, "It aims to degender the conversation around sexual assault and sexual violence...Because that's every day of my life. And that is every single day of every woman's life that I've ever known, from my mother to my sister. You know, probably to my daughter someday, if I'm being real. That's the reality of the world. And we really need to go deeper in and hold space for different ways of thinking and communicating story. ... And if we're going to talk about inclusion and if inclusion and equality of the body matters, the inclusion, and equality of the story must matter as well."
She explained that Cross is very conscious about these issues now and is open to discussing these issues as . She mentioned, "The thing I can say about David, that I love so much about him, is that he changes. And part of his introspection and his sensitivity is that he's aware of that." She said that she helped him to see things under a different light, as their family received death threats and Tamblyn was under the clamping pressure to address her husband. She mentioned, "Women were coming after me and telling me 'Oh you can't be the head of a movement and not speak to this'."
She stated that the pair has had difficult conversations on the matter, just as most women do with their husbands.
