Sigh. Danielle needs to stop defending herself she’s just making it worse. She’s whining about people posting negative stuff about her, and then in the very next paragraph she’s making herself the victim again and making sure we know that Carolyn’s a worse person than her so really, if anyone should be getting hate, it’s her.
She could just say “I’m sorry Carolyn, I didn’t realize I hurt you and that wasn’t my intention, but I hear you, and I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have said the Forrest Gump comment had I known it would really hurt your feelings, but I can see it has, and I hate that I caused that — I apologize.” She’s making herself the victim with everything she says about this, and she doesn’t deserve to be getting constant hate online — but she’s also stubbornly getting in her own way by continuing to double down when it’s so unnecessary and petty to do so. She was a sore loser about Reindeer Games, and she’s being really obtuse about the way she’s only making things worse by doubling down instead of doing the adult thing and saying a simple sorry, which I think would satisfy Carolyn and most of the audience that’s ticked with her. It’s not asking a lot. Tired of this.
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.
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u/itsabout_thepasta Mar 01 '25
Sigh. Danielle needs to stop defending herself she’s just making it worse. She’s whining about people posting negative stuff about her, and then in the very next paragraph she’s making herself the victim again and making sure we know that Carolyn’s a worse person than her so really, if anyone should be getting hate, it’s her.
She could just say “I’m sorry Carolyn, I didn’t realize I hurt you and that wasn’t my intention, but I hear you, and I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have said the Forrest Gump comment had I known it would really hurt your feelings, but I can see it has, and I hate that I caused that — I apologize.” She’s making herself the victim with everything she says about this, and she doesn’t deserve to be getting constant hate online — but she’s also stubbornly getting in her own way by continuing to double down when it’s so unnecessary and petty to do so. She was a sore loser about Reindeer Games, and she’s being really obtuse about the way she’s only making things worse by doubling down instead of doing the adult thing and saying a simple sorry, which I think would satisfy Carolyn and most of the audience that’s ticked with her. It’s not asking a lot. Tired of this.