On Claira Janover
On July 1st of 2020, a woman named Claira Janover got fired for a TikTok video. At least those are her words; it’s since come to my attention that she never really worked at the company and it was instead an internship that got rescinded, but by now that’s just apples and oranges. The point is, she had an opportunity taken away due to a video. Her opponents are quick to point out that the TikTok video she made was of her threatening to stab people, and that doing so was a clear threat of violence, which could cost people their jobs at LEAST. But what is the truth?
ADDENDUM JULY 8, 2020: It has come to my attention that Claira Janover presented evidence that it wasn’t an internship she was offered, but an actual position.
First off, yes she made such a video. In said video, barely twenty seconds long, she goes on to say “the next person who has the CAUCACITY to say “all lives matter” I will stab you, and then I will show you my papercut and say “my papercut matters too.”” On its surface the threat is clear cut and plain as day; and if I were of a lesser mind, I’d say that ends it and call it a day. But I’m not, so it’s not over yet.
Thing about TikTok you must realize is that the site’s videos are barely a minute long at most. So the people who upload videos unto TikTok have the tendency to upload more than one video on certain subjects as part of a series. Sometimes these videos are properly labeled as part 1, part 2, etc; and sometimes they’re not. So a user can upload a TikTok video that makes reference to a previous video without tagging it, fully expecting (not without reason) that whoever’s watching this particular video had also seen the previous video alluded to.
In this case, the video alluded to is one that Claira had posted previously, where she makes the following analogy: imagine you’ve been stabbed; how would you feel if someone with a papercut went up to you as you begged for help, and told you “my papercut hurts too!” That’s how it feels when someone says “All Lives Matter!” when you say “Black Lives Matter!”
Now why would she make this statement? Unless you’ve not been paying attention to news media, you’d notice that the USA has been under protest for well over a month now. They’re protesting police brutality against the African American (or black) community, which has been a plague to said people for well over a century now. The phrase itself, “Black Lives Matter,” is merely a reminder that this sort of situation is unacceptable. It’s a reminder that black people are people too, and that it shouldn’t be seen as OK for a cop to kill a black person and get away with it.
AND GET AWAY WITH IT, that’s the important part. Many cops, many civilians have been getting away with the murder of black people for as long as we can remember (even longer still, actually). Perhaps one of the most infuriating recent incidents is that of Breona Taylor, the EMT who was killed in her own apartment by unidentified police officers, who burst into her apartment with a no-knock warrant (which allowed them to enter the house without knocking), to arrest someone who was already in custody. Taylor’s boyfriend assumed the police were intruders, and like any gun owner is prepared to do, fired his gun at the people whom he’d have every right to assume would harm him or his girlfriend. Taylor was the only one to die.
And that’s not even getting into the George Floyd occurrence of earlier this year, the one to kickstart the protests. As I’ve said, this has been going on for decades on end, and unless action is taken, it will continue. Ergo, the phrase a“Black Lives Matter” comes with the unspoken understanding that the phrase continues with “so stop acting like they don’t.”
Consider the idea that George Floyd’s killers were caught on camera chocking the man to death in broad daylight, and that NO ACTIONS were taken against them until AFTER the protests started. In fact, the Minneapolis Police Department were quite quick to try to sweep the entire event under the rug; and they would have, too, if the video hadn’t spread. And that’s PART of what gets people angry; WHY DO WE NEED A PROTEST OF THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE JUST TO GET A MURDERER TO FACE JUSTICE!?
But then comes the willful ignorance of All Lives Matter. This phrase rose as a reaction to Black Lives Matter; what it means and what its supporters do are two entirely different beasts. Yes, all lives matter; but this phrase rings hollow until people start acting as if BLACK LIVES matter too!
To say All Lives Matter as a response to BLM is, at best, ignorant of the core message of Black Lives Matter. The movement is protesting injustice faced by a community; what’s being asked, first and foremost, is that this injustice be recognized as such. If All Lives Matter to you, then you’ll recognize the importance of Black Lives Matter.
But there are those who use All Lives Matter as a way to silence the BLM movement, to shame them and paint them as something they’re not: a Black Supremacist movement. These people are so desensitized to racism that they truly, TRULY believe that black people protesting and looting is SETTING BACK INTERRACIAL RELATIONSHIPS!
Which goes back to Claira Janover. The girl made a series of videos explaining her view of BLM and ALM, and made a clear cut analogy on how the two relate. In a moment of anger (or as a joke) she made a more intense video where she apparently threatens physical violence against those who say All Lives Matter to her. In response to this, there were people who reported her video to the company she was to work at, and said company terminated her.
The people who did this, who undoubtedly include those who believe a High Schooler ought not lose a college recommendation for doing a Nazi Salute, CELEBRATED her termination. They laughed at her, laughed at what happened to her. They called her a thug, they called what happened to her karma, etc. They even made a hashtag on Twitter out of her name.
This was all deliberate. They did it because, for once, they could take a swipe at someone who spoke up for BLM. The people who rage against Cancel Culture did the most Cancel Culture thing imaginable. The people who wail on Free Speech punished a girl for her speech. The people who decry a generation raised on South Park getting easily offended, got offended by a twenty second TikTok video. The people who protest that comedians can’t make jokes anymore, couldn’t be arsed to check that Claira HERSELF clarified in her comments section that the video was a FUCKING JOKE! They got a girl fired because, when all is said and done, they got triggered.
A few days ago in Missouri, a wedded couple named the McCloskeys aimed guns at protesters, their fingers on the triggers. They still have their jobs, but a girl who makes a TikTok video talking shit gets fired? A black child can get killed for having a toy gun; a white couple won’t even get a fine for pulling guns on PEACEFUL PROTESTERS! George Floyd got suffocated to death for over eight minutes over a twenty dollar bill; Dylan Roof got to eat Burger King after shooting up a black church. Then you wonder why we say Black Lives Matter.
These people, most of them raised on South Park and Family Guy, got a girl fired over a TikTok video. That’s what we in the business call ‘easily triggered snowflakes.’
