Attention: Bill Maher is NOT an Ally

By Alicia Norman

He may be a self-proclaimed progressive liberal, but he is certainly not an ally to disenfranchised groups. Just ask Milo Yiannopoulos, who Bill invited on his show for a “spar.” During their exchange, Bill agreed with the provocateur regarding the so-called sneakiness and violent tendencies of the trans community.

If he were as knowledgeable as he often thinks he is (I mean, come on, he laughs at his jokes), he would know that transfolk are the most preyed upon and marginalized of all minority groups.  Their assaults and murders are deprioritized as many cops think their mere existence means they are “asking for it.”

It is obvious dude hadn’t done a shred of research in this regard.

In 2020 alone, 44 trans and non-gender conforming people were fatally shot or killed, the majority Black or Latinx.

When was the last time you heard nongender conforming people attacking Bubba while he was enjoying an ice-cold one at a truck stop?

And I ask you, does anyone think someone will spend their entire lives, get surgery and try to live as they were truly meant to sneak in bathrooms and rape folks?

How does this make sense?

Well, it makes sense to Bill.

This leads me to the latest Bill Maher outrage -- the fact he invited an all-white panel to agree with him that racism doesn’t exist and the left has lost its mind.  The latest imagined affront? The idea that “Lift Every Voice and Sing” is considered a black anthem that will soon play alongside or replace the national anthem.

Hysterical much?

He Constantly Misrepresents Minority Arguments

A faithful ally not only grasps what the disenfranchised group is fighting (like, say, David Letterman, John Oliver, or Stephen Colbert often do), they don’t try to misrepresent their arguments.

Not only does Bill Maher constantly do this, he actually runs with right-wing talking points, taking them as facts, a la the whole trans people want to change their entire lives to rape women in bathrooms schtick.

That is a right-wing talking point founded in ignorance with no stats to back it up.

After going after an historically Black College  and the NFL for daring to make a statement by singing ”Lift Every Voice and Sing” as a Black Anthem, he adds insult to injury by discussing his show with no African-American present to provide an argument to his diatribe. 

Because of it, I am bracing myself for an onslaught of well-meaning liberals asking if Black folks realize we are keeping the whole racism thing going.

Does Maher ask questions as to why African Americans might not want to sing an anthem written by people who disregard our pain and perspective to this day?

Nope.

It won’t stop Bill-O from running with a fake ass narrative, though.

On his show with his all-white panel, he pontificates on how colleges are  becoming a “social justice factory.”

Colleges are a microcosm of society, Bill. They produce men and women who will go out and interact with people from different cultures when they join the workforce.

As it stands, schools have always been a social justice factory; only we looked at it as fostering understanding and teaching humans how to get along.

Imagine that.

Bill is that smug progressive how often thinks he knows all the answers, and in a bid to seem fair and moderate, rushes towards any faux outrage to disparage it.

For instance, when BLM mentioned how the All Lives Matter mantra is counterproductive, he laughed it off as people freaking out about the simple message that everyone matters.

He fails to understand that the commentary is a strawman argument that no one is even saying. No Black Lives Matter advocate has said only Black people matter. Put a “too” at the end, Bill.

It is Black Lives Matter, too.

When you run with a false counter-narrative, you try to shut down the conversation.

As he is doing with this.

No one is not trying to replace the national anthem. As with kneeling, they are trying to make a point. In fact, according to the Hill,  “The NFL has said that the song will be featured this season before certain "tentpole games" as part of the league’s 10-year, $250 million pledge to fight racism.

The NFL will also promote its social justice campaign through signs, player helmet decals, and PSAs.”

The song is being played during certain games to raise awareness about racism.

So yeah, it is not to compete with or cancel out the anthem, in fact, the Star-Spangled Banner is still being played at such games.

Representation Matters, Bill

I am reminded of a liberal bud of mine, a feminist, to who I detailed a painful occurrence of racism. After I spoke with her, she raised her brow and asked me how I know the women in question had indeed been racist.

She even asked me if I had done something to make the person act in the belligerent and nasty way she had.

I was stunned. I expected this kind of thing from conservatives, not people who were aware of the social - “isms” of the world.

I haven’t spoken to her in years -- a beautiful woman in some ways, always reminded me of Sandra Bullock.

Our friendship was never the same after that.

She showed me with her tsk-tsking that she did not value my lived perspectives or trust I had enough sense or intelligence to understand my own experiences. How would she feel if I asked her if her anger towards being hit on might have been based on what she was wearing, for example?

Yet, dear friend would likely see nothing wrong with Bill assembling an all-White panel to discuss how racism impacts Black folks.

Seriously

This is akin to inviting “only” men to talk about how painful childbirth is.

While a male doctor can speak to what happens in labor from a medical standpoint, and some guys can pontificate ad nauseaum as to whether “birthin’” is painful,  not having a woman who has undergone actual childbirth on a show to talk about the pain of childbirth is not only egregious, it is intellectually lazy.

He dare he claim to be an ally?

What would we think if someone asked a child who had been brutally molested if he was sure he had been touched? Or a sobbing woman with torn and bloody clothing if she was sure she was raped?

Bill Maher does something akin to this when he asks people of color if they “really” experienced racism. I live in this body. I am aware of the world. The question is an insult to my experiences and my intelligence.

How dare anyone try to gaslight me and tell me I did not experience what I experienced.

And how dare Bill Maher claim to be an ally when he is clearly not.

~ARN

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About the author: Alicia R. Norman is a freelance writer as well as a graphic illustrator/animator. Norman’s primary goal is to combine vivid storytelling with animation in order to create scintillating, fun, and/or thought-provoking films. Official website: www.luvmultimedia.com

The opinions expressed are her own and may not reflect those of anyone else associated with this blog.