Today on the chopping block we have Community, a wholesome, amazing, hilarious show about a community college full of misfits and mismatched characters from across the racial, age, and socioeconomic spectrums. God forbid a show like this exist.

There’s Jeff, the hot, white, douchey, not-a-lawyer; Annie, the meek, pale, secretly hot, jewish academic; Abed, the loveable, likely neuro-atypical, half Arabic, half Palestinian nerd; Troy, the dumb, black jock with a heart of gold; Shirley, the black, judgemental, well-meaning, extremely christian mommy; Pierce, the old-money, ancient, white asshole; Chang, the narcissistic chinese asshole who screws with the study group; Dean Pelton, the pasty, extremely flamboyant dean, who speaks 70% of his lines in sexual innuendo directed at Jeff, and Britta the defiant, idealistic, white bread, social justice warrior. Britta is the worst. Somehow these characters, though deeply flawed in their own ways, get along with each other.

So I’ve just read the Netflix and Hulu have cancelled season 2 episode 14: Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, because of apparent blackface. Early in the episode, Chang shows up caked from head to toe, fingernails included, in blue-toned black makeup, with pointy black ears and an awful plasticky shimmery white wig, but no armor, because he’s an elf, not a nerd. Shirley immediately says “So, we just gonna ignore that hate crime, huh?” Chang states that he is a dark elf or a Drow.

A few turns into the game Pierce the dickish, shows up, naked and shivering, and steals Niel’s sword. When Chang tries to steal the sword fom Pierce, Pierce screams, “I attack him! I attack blackface!” and, ultimately, kills Chang’s character, Brutalitops, with a critical hit. Chang hands over his character sheet and disappears from the episode entirely seven minutes and fifty seconds into the episode.

I took Chang’s Drow character at face value, because a LOT of fantasy universes have races of desaturated blue/purple/greyish skinned people that range from pale to nigh black, Called Drows. Amusingly, from what I’ve seen, the different shades of Drow don’t seem to bicker amongst each other as much as the real-life human race which, itself, is just varying shades of brown, whether you chose to acknowledge it or not.

Now, the show isn’t saying, “HEY BLACKFACE IS AMAZING! BLACKFACE IS GREAT!” It isn’t saying, “LET’S ALL DO BLACKFACE BECAUSE BLACK PEOPLE ARE STUPID AND FUN TO LAUGH AT!” It isn’t saying, “LET’S IGNORE BLACKFACE BECAUSE WHO CARES!?” It is saying, “aaaaand here’s Chang, acting like an insensitive dickhead. Again. Are we surprised at this point?”

What a novel concept, writing a character that is an asshole that nobody likes, doing asshole things that nobody likes. It’s called an antagonist. Also, his transgression is immediately chastised by one of the main black characters. I doubt that anyone who watched this episode, along with the rest of the show, said, “OMG HAHA BLACKFACE.” I know didn’t. My mental response was much like Shirley’s. “uh, Chang, you DO see what you look like you’re doing here, right? Not cool dude. Not cool at all. Even if you think you look like a Drow, your friends, and society in general, just sees a paint-job harkening back to a time when racism was acceptable.” Portrayals like this are supposed to be offensive, and start conversations, not leave a bunch of virtue signaling white people in a tizzy.

What is less important in this episode, I guess, is the fact that it tackles bullying and fat shaming, which can, and often does, lead to depression, which can lead to suicide, and the good that can come reaching out to people who are struggling. These are all important problems that can, and do affect everyone across the world, regardless of age, gender or race, but I guess that’s just not as important as censoring the antagonistic actions of an antagonizing character.

This should not be cancelled, but what will be cancelled is my Netflix subscription.