Why Questlove Fucked Up ( And Why Liberals Ignore It At Their Own Peril)

　
　
Here’s what Jimmy Fallon and Questlove would have done if they had spines. They would have had Michelle Bachmann on, but have big Freeda and Katey Red-avatars of New Orleans’ Sissy Bounce music scene-to jam with the band in between breaks. Since Fallon has an affinity for indie artists, he could have had Meshell Ndgeochello-one of great indie artists in the history of soul-perform from her new album. As a guest, he could have had Wanda Sykes on to talk about her supporting role in the upcoming Muppet movie. If Questlove and Fallon had pulled off, it would have been ethical guerilla theater similar the slow torture of Lester Maddox on the Dick Cavett Show( in which Cavett, Jim Brown, and Truman Capote made Maddox walk off the show by twisting him up in his own logic)

But that didn’t happen, did it? The Roots’ gender shaming moment with Bachmann had nothing to do with her abominable politics and everything to do with their male liberal Id. Like too many men, Questlove thought he could get away with acting on his darkest impulses just because the woman he was criticizing politics are reprehensible. His and Fallon’s non apologies, and the rhetoric of those who have downplayed the incident( or worse, defend it as a response to her politics on gender, race, and sexuality) all have the same subtext: disagree with us and you will be abused. It is a subtext that has haunted modern liberalism from the exodus of women from SNCC in the 60’s, to the backlashes against the feminist movement in literature in the 70’s and 80’s, all the way to the white liberal hipster men who went psycho on Hilary Clinton in 2008. If this is the way a sizeable amount of progressive men are going to act toward women they disagree with, it will continue to haunt us in 2012, and the consequences will be dire.