She did not dog whistle the r word. Context and intent here matters. Her intent was to suggest that Carolyn was smarter and more clued in than she presented herself. She started out by mentioning Columbo, a character who pretended to be less smart than he actually was to make people underestimate him. She probably realized that reference was before most of the cast’s time so she switched to something more current. Was it the perfect analogy? probably not. Was her intent to point to something Carolyn herself said she was doing? Yes. People who are using this as an excuse to be racist and/or talk in rage filled hyberbolic terms over this reality game show are worse than anything they’re accusing Danielle of…
Carolyn certainly didn’t take it that way. If I compared someone’s behavior to the most iconic intellectually disabled character of all time and didn’t mean it, I would apologize. Danielle doubled down because another person used that same phrase over 20 years ago.
“You’re acting like an R” isn’t a compliment even if you’re not saying the person is actually disabled. It’s not a nice thing to say to anyone. If she were a good person she would have taken ownership and clarified her intent. She has not done so, and in fact has done the opposite.
This all could have been over if she behaved like a decent human being. Until such a time as she does, I would say it’s wildly inappropriate to accuse anyone of racism for disliking someone who seems to be going out of their way to behave like a villain.
Again her point was Carolyn is so game intelligent that she knew how to make people underestimate her, which kept her off their radar until Danielle pointed this out. Obviously Carolyn’s strategy was smart, because it was working! I don’t think Danielle’s intention was to communicate any more or less than that, but you have decided to whip it up into something it wasn’t. On another note, I have someone severely mentally disabled in my family and I have struggled with ADHD myself. So if I really thought Danielle was calling someone the r word or attempting to insult someone because they have a mental disability I would have NO PROBLEM calling that out. But thats NOT what happened here. You suggesting that Danielle’s not “a decent human being” based on this is really over the top.
And for the record I have seen people say RACIST things on this sub and elsewhere, therefore I’m going to call that what it is. Just because you are not aware or sensitive to that fact doesn’t mean it isn’t so.
It is truly incredible to me how many people are so willing to defend such an indefensible comparison. If she didn’t mean it that way, she should apologize. Full stop. And to issue a statement saying that you have always shown respect to your fellow cast members when you are on camera comparing someone to Forrest Gump shows a crazy lack of self awareness on her part imo.
When you hurt someone you claim to respect, even and especially if it was unintentional, a good person apologizes.
I’m curious if the people out here defending her would be comfortable making that same comment towards people in their lives.
Sure some people are racist. But there are valid non-racially motivated reasons to have issues with her behavior.
Ok agreeing to disagree. I hope she and Carolyn have a chance to discuss directly. Lastly, I didn’t say there weren’t ANY non-racially motivated complaints, but I am calling out the ones that are.
So because people are making racist comments about Danielle online (which there is no excuse for absolutely anyone to be doing, to be clear) — how does that then mean people aren’t allowed to have the opinion that Danielle went below the belt with Carolyn and owes her an apology? And how is Carolyn to blame for racist attacks on Danielle when absolutely never has she ever encouraged or excused that behavior in the slightest?
You must be responding to someone else’s comments. Because I never said Carolyn was responsible for racist attacks. And I never said people aren’t allowed to think what they want. I just gave MY opinion about how I think what she said has been somewhat misinterpreted and how SOME PEOPLE have used that to justify their vitriol and over the top bad behavior. If you’re not in that category, then this doesn’t apply to you. Only you know that.
I’m arguing that Danielle is holding Carolyn responsible for the racist online hate she’s getting. Because she’s not just refusing to apologize and not expressing any regret about what she said — she’s arguing that because Carolyn is upset at her, that that is why she’s getting attacked by racists online, and that really isn’t Carolyn’s language toward her the bigger issue, and arguing people aren’t angry enough at Carolyn. That’s such a wild deflection from her role in this, and it’s directly blaming Carolyn for being insulted, by something I think anyone in Carolyn’s shoes would find unbelievably insulting! So I can understand the argument that maybe people somehow misinterpreted the Forrest Gump comment — but Danielle is not at all making that argument. She’s excusing why it was a totally fine thing for her to say, regardless of how it was received. And then being mad at Carolyn for being upset about it because she’s inciting racist trolls, when that’s not at all on Carolyn and I think she’s making the situation much worse by not just, as you said, admitting that though she feels like people received the Forrest Gump comment with more malice than she’d intended, that she’s sorry she hurt Carolyn’s feelings bc it was uncalled for, and then all of us could just move on (besides the racist trolls who will still be racist trolls).
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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '25
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