vox--2020-06-26--Did Cards Against Humanity’s ironic humor mask a toxic culture all along?

Cards Against Humanity , its legions of supporters , and perhaps an entire culture of ironic humor is currently undergoing a reckoning .
The popular card game company faced multiple allegations of fostering a long-standing abusive , racist workplace culture earlier this month .
After weeks of discussion online , including a resurfaced 2014 rape allegation , the best-known Cards Against Humanity co-founder , Max Temkin , has left the company .
On June 23 , Cards Against Humanity published a statement in a preemptive response to a pending report by Vox sister site Polygon .
The company alternately confirmed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against it while also outlining the actions it would take to rebuild its workplace to eliminate toxicity .
“ We are incredibly sorry , and we know our apologies are not enough , ” a company spokesperson told Polygon .
The company also told Vox in an email that it would pledge $ 100,000 to support organizations working toward racial justice .
Cards Against Humanity ( CAH ) has long been a bastion of “ edgy ” geek culture .
Since the company was founded in 2011 , its mini-empire has grown to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ theater in Chicago and the recent acquisition of satirical news site Clickhole .
The company ’ s estimated lifetime revenue is as high as $ 25 million as of 2017 .
But CAH is best known for pushing social boundaries , whether by mocking social ills like racism , misogyny , and transphobia or through grandiose nihilistic stunts like selling “ nothing ” for $ 5 on Black Friday or threatening to destroy a Picasso .
Such stunts helped attract its huge fandom — in 2017 , its six-day-long CAH Save America campaign @ @ @ @ @ @ @ advertising award — but also drew plenty of side-eyes from naysayers who found its cynicism off-putting .
CAH ’ s namesake card game , a self-proclaimed “ party game for terrible people , ” is an off-color derivative of the family-friendly Apples to Apples , the Mad Libs-style party game .
Players use a small handful of words to fill in blanks within loaded phrases for maximum comedic effect , and the appeal lies in the goal of creating a more shocking , provocative one-liner from your hand of cards than your fellow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ funniest player in the group .
It ’ s the kind of wordplay silliness that goes over well among a lot of drunk party-goers .
But detractors have argued for years that CAH ’ s real appeal is , in a word , racism .
A 2016 study published in the academic journal Humanity & Society found that a quarter of the cards in the original deck dealt with race , and nearly all of those cards involving minorities seemed to invite the worst readings possible .
Consider , for example , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a giggle at the mention of Hutus and Tutsis , ” later reportedly changed to “ Helplessly giggling at the mention ... ” The phrase implies that something about the names of indigenous tribes is inherently funny , and that even though we all know it ’ s wrong , we just can ’ t help but indulge in our racism just a little bit , for a laugh .
( CAH removed this card from circulation in 2015 . )
In practice , that implied racism often leads players to indulge in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ jokes that demonstrate overt racism and which can occasionally turn real-life genocide into the butt of a joke : The reason the game ’ s design didn ’ t create an immediate clusterfuck when it launched largely had to do with the message and appearance of the company itself .
Founded by eight male , white , liberal high school buddies from Chicago , CAH was born out of what we might think of as the peak of ironic comedy culture .
South Park first epitomized this sensibility , and it carried forward @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2010s .
Everything from shows like It ’ s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The Big Bang Theory , movies like The Hangover and Superbad , the Broadway musicals Avenue Q and Book of Mormon , and vast swaths of internet culture , from YouTube to Reddit , thrived on the idea that over-the-top “ satire ” was the sincerest form of comedy .
As the company ’ s six active founders wrote to Vox , “ Cards Against Humanity began as a satire of hollow morality and evangelical hypocrisy during the tail @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Though it didn ’ t officially launch until 2011 , three years into the Obama administration , the game ’ s brand of comedy was by then well-established within pop culture .
CAH publicly espoused progressive ideals , and its game ’ s joking bigotry was universally assumed to be punching up .
Critics ’ chief complaint about CAH has always been that , like with all mainstays of ironic culture , they feel alienated by the suspicion that all that joking bigotry was secretly real once the party is over .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ many allegations of workplace abuse , racism , and sexual harassment made by former staff members , along with the rape allegation against Temkin , former fans and supporters are questioning whether the company that spent years putting “ jokes ” about such issues onto the shelves of urbane , white , middle-class households across America was actually ever in on its own joke .
The undoing of Max Temkin , Cards Against Humanity ’ s most public face , followed a successfully funded Kickstarter for a series of jigsaw puzzles developed by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and other game designers .
The project drew support from more than 62,000 loyal CAH fans and game enthusiasts after its May 4 launch , and a Kickstarter for it has raised $ 3.4 million .
Three days later came a Twitter thread by former CAH designer A. Theresa Stewart , who hashtagged her story of workplace abuse with # CAHisover .
Stewart , a black queer woman who worked for the company ’ s shipping arm , Blackbox , described inadvertently provoking hair-trigger tempers from white male coworkers after she asked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ possible ” on the work chat program Slack .
“ Working at Cards Against Humanity was a tough time in my career , ” Stewart told Vox in an email .
She says she was subjected to ridicule and months of alienation from other staff because of her Slack message , with no effort from management to address the situation .
She tweeted that after she pleaded with the company ’ s COO to address what had become a hostile work environment , he allegedly handled it by doing nothing beyond asking the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ situation .
At that point , Stewart tweeted , “ I learned my lesson .
I WAS ALONE.
” CAH has since partially disputed Stewart ’ s narrative .
But her claims still highlight how the company ’ s regressive workplace ethos and behind-the-scenes treatment of employees undermined its public efforts to appear progressive .
In 2017 , she and other staffers took issue with CAH ’ s plan to make paltry reparations as part of CAH ’ s 2017 weeklong winter holiday stunt to “ Save America , ” a project intended @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sending kids to museums and pretending to rename a baseball stadium .
Temkin , in particular , she alleged was dismissive of her concerns , although the day of reparations ultimately became a day of “ wealth redistribution.
” “ In retrospect , this employee clearly did not feel comfortable sharing her true disappointment with our actions to resolve the concerns she brought up , ” CAH said in its public response .
“ We want to apologize to her for not creating a workplace where she felt comfortable bringing concerns forward .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , we hope to use this as a learning experience for how we can do better in the future.
” In the end , Stewart said she left the company a few months later and never looked back .
She later told Polygon that she further experienced “ a barrage of microaggressions ” from staff , including management , and described her departure from CAH as an “ escape.
” Despite what Stewart thought at the time , however , she apparently wasn ’ t alone .
From one woman ’ s allegations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Stewart ’ s thread initiated a chain of similar allegations from other former CAH employees backing up Stewart ’ s claims as well as each others ’ .
These included people like ex-employee Nico Carter , who alleged that other company writers persuaded his parents to have him committed to a mental health institute after he began “ raising a ruckus about the unethical , racist way the predominantly white , upper-middle-class room was approaching writing the game.
” ( CAH has strenuously denied Carter ’ s claim . )
Former contractor Ali @ @ @ @ @ @ @ journalist , tweeted about a litany of racially tinged microaggressions and other negative experiences she had working with the company .
Former CAH designer Ayla B. Arthur wrote in a thread detailing her own alienation at the company that “ marginalized people , especially people of color , were often regulated to the sidelines in terms of staffing because of a company culture that prized Who You Knew over actual Gainful Employment or Benefits.
” One former staffer who wished to remain anonymous told Vox that ex-employees also used the phrase “ golden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ feeling trapped while working at the company , which offered huge career and social clout but left workers feeling frustrated and uninspired .
Former staffer Elaine Short alleged that Temkin , in particular , had sexually harassed her during work hours .
The most damning of all the allegations , however , concerned an allegation of rape made against Temkin in 2014 by a Tumblr user named Magz .
Magz made the accusation — that Temkin raped her in 2006 when she was a first-year student in college — first in a private @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her permission and then with more details in a since-deleted Tumblr post .
( Vox was unable to reach Magz for comment . )
Temkin denied the allegation in 2014 and continues to deny it .
In 2014 , the rape allegation didn ’ t gather much attention outside of Tumblr , although the intimate tech festival XOXO did subsequently ban Temkin after the spread of Magz ’ s posts , and the accusation occasionally resurfaced in the years that followed .
In our post-Me Too culture , however , the public response @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the rape allegation against Temkin had garnered little attention in 2014 , June ’ s wave of new allegations regarding CAH ’ s toxic company culture attracted broader notice , leading many geek and tech culture figures to denounce Temkin and CAH itself .
Former friends , like feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian , publicly distanced themselves from Temkin .
Geek and tech convention organizer ReedPop publicly announced it would no longer be partnering with CAH ; meanwhile , hundreds of patrons of his puzzle Kickstarter posted requests to cancel their pledges .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ employees announced they ’ d chosen to leave the company .
Other former CAH employees took responsibility for being part of its toxic culture .
On Twitter , Andrew Briggs , who ’ d been one of Stewart ’ s chief aggressors after she asked for Slack threading , issued a lengthy apology .
“ It ’ s true , I was a brute and made life worse for someone who never deserved that , ” Briggs said .
“ I participated in and contributed to a culture that normalized this behavior.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had written her a short apology email . )
Skepticism remains about how effective CAH ’ s internal efforts to better itself will be .
After CAH posted its lengthy response to the allegations , observers criticized the statement — for its lateness , arriving more than two weeks after the original wave of complaints surfaced ; for its late-night publication ( to preempt the pending Polygon report ) ; for its failure to acknowledge CAH ’ s inaction in 2014 when the rape allegation against Temkin first became known ; and for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ real underlying issues within the company ’ s corporate culture .
“ The CAH founders released a statement in the middle of the night filled with evasive , defensive , victim-blaming ‘ context , ’ ” Elaine Short told Vox in an email , “ confirming that Cards Against Humanity ’ s problems don ’ t begin and end with Max.
” “ I don ’ t even consider this an apology , ” Ali Barthwell told Vox .
“ From what I know of the culture at the company and looking at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , I believe [ this is an ] attempt at damage control — to preserve the image that they ’ re a progressive , inclusive company.
” Factors that led to the company ’ s workplace culture are plentiful , but most people seem to agree that the nature of CAH ’ s humor is intrinsically tied to the allegations of toxicity .
This is , after all , a company built on pushing boundaries and edgy satire — but that ethos doesn ’ t exactly lend itself to a safe and comfortable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ white male founders have largely continued to be the “ face ” of the company , regardless of how many writers they ’ ve hired since , CAH ’ s humor has appeared to remain largely by and for white people .
So even though CAH can appear very progressive and all about confronting systemic social problems , much of its humor is derived from the implicit assumption that things suck for everyone else — and that , in turn , can lead to comedy that actually sucks for everyone else .
Take @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has pulled from its game because it was found to be punching down : “ Passable transvestites , ” which Temkin himself said he regretted publishing .
But among the other punch lines that remain in the game include gems like “ Black people , “ The biggest , blackest dick ” ( a secret card found in the “ Bigger , Blacker Box ” expansion pack ) , “ African children , ” and “ AIDS.
” This kind of humor is only funny if you ’ re “ in ” on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re not truly bigoted and so you can therefore make fun of the inherent bigotry in the joke .
But what usually happens is that the ironic cushion gets lost ; making “ Black people ” a joke doesn ’ t punch up at the social system that oppresses Black people , it perpetuates the racist idea that Black people are inherently mockable .
And that type of convoluted messaging doesn ’ t make people who are the most frequent butt of those jokes feel comfortable .
This intersection between the comedy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ workplace culture of CAH the company has been a constant theme of the discussion around the allegations .
Many former employees say they spoke out about the ongoing attempts to diversify the humor of the cards , only to be met with resistance from , for example , white writers who didn ’ t understand why “ Denzel ” [ Washington ] or “ Shonda ” [ Rhimes ] were pop culture staples .
Polygon further reported that many staffers felt they were tacitly discouraged from punching up specifically against rape culture because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
CAH responded by pointing out examples of black culture and attempts to send up rape culture making it into the humor of the cards .
But the list of more conciliatory cards CAH offered in defense may have served to further highlight how contextual such humor is to begin with .
“ I joined the writers room being told this is an attempt to make this a more inclusive game , ” Barthwell told Vox .
“ When you are 21 and a white guy ... the things that you find funny @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make fun of and derive humor from .
You also have to look at the culture around comedy that says if you care , if you want to use comedy to make things better , then you ’ re a sap .
It ’ s funny to make fun of people caring , it ’ s funny to make fun of things that are offensive , but what you ’ re ending up doing is replicating systems of oppression that already exist.
” In an emailed statement to Vox , Cards Against Humanity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ take concerns about the efficacy of the game ’ s humor seriously : Despite the company ’ s stated commitment to self-examination , some former employees noted a disconnect between CAH ’ s public-facing progressivism and its workplace environment .
One former employee who asked to remain anonymous stressed that even though the anti-corporate mentality around the office engendered toxic elements — like the lack of an HR department — the company wasn ’ t averse to corporate practices when it benefited its founders .
From the start , after all , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exploiting cheap labor in China .
“ I ’ ve always kinda struggled [ with ] representing the game in public at events and such , ” another former employee who asked to remain anonymous told Vox .
“ But [ I ] was able to tell myself that they were ‘ working on it ’ ...
I don ’ t think a lot of the work they do is fake woke , just sometimes very blinded by privilege.
” The ex-employee was equally dubious that the company could commit to larger meaningful @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a sort of ‘ I ’ ll believe it when I see it ’ mindset , ” they said .
“ There ’ s always room to learn , but the company has to be willing — and stop using the brand voice to hide behind sarcasm.
” Stewart likewise had a list of concrete changes she encouraged CAH to make in order to decrease its workplace toxicity .
“ The statement Cards Against Humanity has given and the actions the organization promises to take are only an overdue first step in making @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” she told Vox .
“ In order to truly evolve Cards Against Humanity , there needs to be drastic changes in the broader leadership team and day-to-day operations that allowed a toxic environment to thrive.
” Stewart ’ s suggested action items included removing the company ’ s COO who initially handled her complaints , creating a formal HR department , anti-racism and anti-harassment training , increasing equity among employees , and reducing the CAH founders ’ overall .
CAH declined to comment on Stewart ’ s requested changes .
As @ @ @ @ @ @ @ harassment allegations is complex .
He retains a 1/8 share in the company as one of its original eight founders ; in their email to Vox , CAH ’ s founders claimed that buying out his remaining share would be an adverse move : “ Legally , we ’ re unable to seize his 1/8 share without buying him out , which would only reward Max .
We are not willing to do that.
” ( Vox has reached out to Temkin for comment . )
While most people Vox spoke with seemed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contractor who asked to remain anonymous told Vox that they didn ’ t want Temkin and his actions to be forgotten .
“ I do not want Temkin to withdraw and hide , ” they said .
“ I really honestly hope that he will do the work needed to right these wrongs .
I want him to remember that it isn ’ t easy , nor is it instant , and he needs to practice the understanding and philosophy he once preached.
” Multiple people Vox spoke with believe CAH is capable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its workplace and its game ’ s humor .
“ Part of why I worked there even when I didn ’ t feel completely safe , ” one source said , “ was that I believed there was potential to do good work for the community with the immense amount of money that game brings in.
” “ I do want to say there are many talented and good people who continue to work there and are pushing for change , ” Stewart told Vox .
“ My hope is that leadership will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been silenced for so long.
” “ My hope is that the future of this company , if it has one , is defined by its employees , ” Short said , calling for a structural overhaul .
“ Time for the boy kings to step down.
” But for change to be lasting , it may need to come with an overhaul of the company ’ s spirit as well as its structure .
In 2017 , Temkin told Vox in an interview that the team behind Cards Against Humanity is happiest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rooted in something real .
In retrospect , that statement seems to be an indictment of the real toxicity that for many years lay dormant behind many of its “ jokes ” — until they all came home to roost at once .
Update : CAH clarified to Vox that it declined to publish the “ Denzel ” card because the company had previously included it in a 2014 expansion pack .
This piece has also been updated with additional information from Cards Against Humanity regarding specific allegations as well as cards that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We have also removed a link and reference to a tweet .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
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Cards Against Humanity, its legions of supporters, and perhaps an entire culture of ironic humor is currently undergoing a reckoning.
The popular card game company faced multiple allegations of fostering a long-standing abusive, racist workplace culture earlier this month. After weeks of discussion online, including a resurfaced 2014 rape allegation, the best-known Cards Against Humanity co-founder, Max Temkin, has left the company.
On June 23, Cards Against Humanity published a statement in a preemptive response to a pending report by Vox sister site Polygon. The company alternately confirmed and contradicted many of the allegations made against it while also outlining the actions it would take to rebuild its workplace to eliminate toxicity. “We are incredibly sorry, and we know our apologies are not enough,” a company spokesperson told Polygon. The company also told Vox in an email that it would pledge $100,000 to support organizations working toward racial justice.
Cards Against Humanity (CAH) has long been a bastion of “edgy” geek culture. Since the company was founded in 2011, its mini-empire has grown to include a board game cafe and a theater in Chicago and the recent acquisition of satirical news site Clickhole. The company’s estimated lifetime revenue is as high as $25 million as of 2017. But CAH is best known for pushing social boundaries, whether by mocking social ills like racism, misogyny, and transphobia or through grandiose nihilistic stunts like selling “nothing” for $5 on Black Friday or threatening to destroy a Picasso. Such stunts helped attract its huge fandom — in 2017, its six-day-long CAH Save America campaign garnered national attention and won a Clio advertising award — but also drew plenty of side-eyes from naysayers who found its cynicism off-putting.
CAH’s namesake card game, a self-proclaimed “party game for terrible people,” is an off-color derivative of the family-friendly Apples to Apples, the Mad Libs-style party game. Players use a small handful of words to fill in blanks within loaded phrases for maximum comedic effect, and the appeal lies in the goal of creating a more shocking, provocative one-liner from your hand of cards than your fellow players in order to be dubbed the funniest player in the group. It’s the kind of wordplay silliness that goes over well among a lot of drunk party-goers.
But detractors have argued for years that CAH’s real appeal is, in a word, racism. A 2016 study published in the academic journal Humanity & Society found that a quarter of the cards in the original deck dealt with race, and nearly all of those cards involving minorities seemed to invite the worst readings possible. Consider, for example, the card about Rwandans, “Stifling a giggle at the mention of Hutus and Tutsis,” later reportedly changed to “Helplessly giggling at the mention ...” The phrase implies that something about the names of Rwandans is inherently funny, and that even though we all know it’s wrong, we just can’t help but indulge in our racism just a little bit, for a laugh. (CAH removed this card from circulation in 2015.)
In practice, that implied racism often leads players to indulge in their worst impulses, leading easily to jokes that demonstrate overt racism and which can occasionally turn real-life genocide into the butt of a joke:
The reason the game’s design didn’t create an immediate clusterfuck when it launched largely had to do with the message and appearance of the company itself. Founded by eight male, white, liberal high school buddies from Chicago, CAH was born out of what we might think of as the peak of ironic comedy culture. South Park first epitomized this sensibility, and it carried forward through pop culture of the 2000s and 2010s. Everything from shows like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The Big Bang Theory, movies like The Hangover and Superbad, the Broadway musicals Avenue Q and Book of Mormon, and vast swaths of internet culture, from YouTube to Reddit, thrived on the idea that over-the-top “satire” was the sincerest form of comedy.
As the company’s six active founders wrote to Vox, “Cards Against Humanity began as a satire of hollow morality and evangelical hypocrisy during the tail end of the George W. Bush administration.” Though it didn’t officially launch until 2011, three years into the Obama administration, the game’s brand of comedy was by then well-established within pop culture. CAH publicly espoused progressive ideals, and its game’s joking bigotry was universally assumed to be punching up.
Critics’ chief complaint about CAH has always been that, like with all mainstays of ironic culture, they feel alienated by the suspicion that all that joking bigotry was secretly real once the party is over. Now, in the wake of the many allegations of workplace abuse, racism, and sexual harassment made by former staff members, along with the rape allegation against Temkin, former fans and supporters are questioning whether the company that spent years putting “jokes” about such issues onto the shelves of urbane, white, middle-class households across America was actually ever in on its own joke.
A benign Slack request allegedly led to months of racially motivated backlash
The undoing of Max Temkin, Cards Against Humanity’s most public face, followed a successfully funded Kickstarter for a series of jigsaw puzzles developed by Temkin, his CAH co-founder Ben Hantoot, and other game designers. The project drew support from more than 62,000 loyal CAH fans and game enthusiasts after its May 4 launch, and the Kickstarter for it has raised $3.4 million.
Three days later came a Twitter thread by former CAH designer A. Theresa Stewart, who hashtagged her story of workplace abuse with #CAHisover. Stewart, a Black queer woman who worked for the company’s shipping arm, Blackbox, described inadvertently provoking hair-trigger tempers from white male coworkers after she asked if staff could “thread messages when possible” on the work chat program Slack.
Well shit hit the fan one fine day when I sent this message. #cahisover pic.twitter.com/M31D4j6p4w — Tay Zonday Stan (@atheresastewart) June 6, 2020
“Working at Cards Against Humanity was a tough time in my career,” Stewart told Vox in an email. She says she was subjected to ridicule and months of alienation from other staff because of her Slack message, with no effort from management to address the situation. She tweeted that after she pleaded with the company’s COO to address what had become a hostile work environment, he allegedly handled it by doing nothing beyond asking the aggressive staff how they felt about the situation. At that point, Stewart tweeted, “I learned my lesson. I WAS ALONE.”
CAH has since partially disputed Stewart’s narrative. But her claims still highlight how the company’s regressive workplace ethos and behind-the-scenes treatment of employees undermined its public efforts to appear progressive. In 2017, she and other staffers took issue with CAH’s plan to make paltry reparations as part of CAH’s 2017 weeklong winter holiday stunt to “Save America,” a project intended to repudiate Trumpism through petty kindnesses like sending kids to museums and pretending to rename a baseball stadium. Temkin in particular, she alleged, was dismissive of her concerns, although the day of reparations ultimately became a day of “wealth redistribution.”
Imagine, a company who is the poster child for “I would have voted for Obama a third time” talking abt how they gonna redistribute wealth to black people. That wealth? $20 $20 for 400 years of abuse and subjugation. Well, I had something to say about that. #cahisover — Tay Zonday Stan (@atheresastewart) June 6, 2020
“In retrospect, this employee clearly did not feel comfortable sharing her true disappointment with our actions to resolve the concerns she brought up,” CAH said in its public response. “We want to apologize to her for not creating a workplace where she felt comfortable bringing concerns forward. As we conduct our third-party HR review, we hope to use this as a learning experience for how we can do better in the future.”
In the end, Stewart said she left the company a few months later and never looked back. She later told Polygon that she further experienced “a barrage of microaggressions” from staff, including management, and described her departure from CAH as an “escape.”
Despite what Stewart thought at the time, however, she apparently wasn’t alone.
From one woman’s allegations, an entire culture of abuse surfaced
Stewart’s thread initiated a chain of similar allegations from other former CAH employees backing up Stewart’s claims as well as each others’. These included people like ex-employee Nico Carter, who alleged that other company writers persuaded his parents to have him committed to a mental health institute after he began “raising a ruckus about the unethical, racist way the predominantly white, upper-middle-class room was approaching writing the game.” (CAH has strenuously denied Carter’s claim.) Former contractor Ali Barthwell, a Second City comedian and journalist, tweeted about a litany of racially tinged microaggressions and other negative experiences she had working with the company.
They hired a writers room to "diversify the game." Within a year, all of the POC except for one were fired or quit in solidarity.#CAHisover — Ali B (@wtflanksteak) June 9, 2020
Former CAH designer Ayla B. Arthur wrote in a thread detailing her own alienation at the company that “marginalized people, especially people of color, were often regulated to the sidelines in terms of staffing because of a company culture that prized Who You Knew over actual Gainful Employment or Benefits.”
One former staffer who wished to remain anonymous told Vox that ex-employees also used the phrase “golden handcuffs” to describe the experience of feeling trapped while working at the company, which offered huge career and social clout but left workers feeling frustrated and uninspired.
Former staffer Elaine Short alleged that Temkin, in particular, had sexually harassed her during work hours. The most damning of all the allegations, however, concerned an allegation of rape made against Temkin in 2014 by a Tumblr user named Magz. Magz made the accusation — that Temkin raped her in 2006 when she was a first-year student in college — first in a private Facebook post which Temkin made public without her permission and then with more details in a since-deleted Tumblr post. (Vox was unable to reach Magz for comment.)
Temkin denied the allegation in 2014 and continues to deny it. In 2014, the rape allegation didn’t gather much attention outside of Tumblr, although the intimate tech festival XOXO did subsequently ban Temkin after the spread of Magz’s posts, and the accusation occasionally resurfaced in the years that followed. In our post-Me Too culture, however, the public response was much, much different.
A domino effect of accountability and apologies
While the rape allegation against Temkin had garnered little attention in 2014, June’s wave of new allegations regarding CAH’s toxic company culture attracted broader notice, leading many geek and tech culture figures to denounce Temkin and CAH itself. Former friends, like feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian, publicly distanced themselves from Temkin. Geek and tech convention organizer ReedPop publicly announced it would no longer be partnering with CAH; meanwhile, hundreds of patrons of his puzzle Kickstarter posted requests to cancel their pledges.
Amid growing calls for change, two employees announced they’d chosen to leave the company. Other former CAH employees took responsibility for being part of its toxic culture. On Twitter, Andrew Briggs, who’d been one of Stewart’s chief aggressors after she asked for Slack threading, issued a lengthy apology. “It’s true, I was a brute and made life worse for someone who never deserved that,” Briggs said. “I participated in and contributed to a culture that normalized this behavior.” (Stewart also told Vox that Briggs had written her a short apology email.)
I wish I could give a proper account of what led to this incident, but the truth is I let a rotten culture infect me and protect me--many many small private moral failures paved the way for the large grotesque ones. That has to end now. — andrew briggs (@theandrewbriggs) June 11, 2020
Skepticism remains about how effective CAH’s internal efforts to better itself will be. After CAH posted its lengthy response to the allegations, observers criticized the statement — for its lateness, arriving more than two weeks after the original wave of complaints surfaced; for its late-night publication (to preempt the pending Polygon report); for its failure to acknowledge CAH’s inaction in 2014 when the rape allegation against Temkin first became known; and for how little it does to address the real underlying issues within the company’s corporate culture.
“The CAH founders released a statement in the middle of the night filled with evasive, defensive, victim-blaming ‘context,’” Elaine Short told Vox in an email, “confirming that Cards Against Humanity’s problems don’t begin and end with Max.”
“I don’t even consider this an apology,” Ali Barthwell told Vox. “From what I know of the culture at the company and looking at how they tackled things in this statement, I believe [this is an] attempt at damage control — to preserve the image that they’re a progressive, inclusive company.”
Communicating through irony isn’t a great basis for sincere change
Factors that led to the company’s workplace culture are plentiful, but most people seem to agree that the nature of CAH’s humor is intrinsically tied to the allegations of toxicity. This is, after all, a company built on pushing boundaries and edgy satire — but that ethos doesn’t exactly lend itself to a safe and comfortable work environment.
Because CAH’s white male founders have largely continued to be the “face” of the company, regardless of how many writers they’ve hired since, CAH’s humor has appeared to remain largely by and for white people. So even though CAH can appear very progressive and all about confronting systemic social problems, much of its humor is derived from the implicit assumption that things suck for everyone else — and that, in turn, can lead to comedy that actually sucks for everyone else.
Take, for example, one card CAH has pulled from its game because it was found to be punching down: “Passable transvestites,” which Temkin himself said he regretted publishing. But among the other punch lines that remain in the game include gems like “Black people, “The biggest, blackest dick” (a secret card found in the “Bigger, Blacker Box” expansion pack), “African children,” and “AIDS.”
This kind of humor is only funny if you’re “in” on the collective “joke” that you’re not truly bigoted and so you can therefore make fun of the inherent bigotry in the joke. But what usually happens is that the ironic cushion gets lost; making “Black people” a joke doesn’t punch up at the social system that oppresses Black people, it perpetuates the racist idea that Black people are inherently mockable. And that type of convoluted messaging doesn’t make people who are the most frequent butt of those jokes feel comfortable.
This workplace story is both typical and specific to the white liberal ironic culture that pervades tech and start-up cultures. Honestly, we should have suspected a brand like @CAH built on white ironic humor to traffic this way in the workplace. It’s on the same continuum. https://t.co/agHXRE2zeQ — Tressie McMillan Cottom (@tressiemcphd) June 8, 2020
This intersection between the comedy culture of CAH the game and the workplace culture of CAH the company has been a constant theme of the discussion around the allegations. Many former employees say they spoke out about the ongoing attempts to diversify the humor of the cards, only to be met with resistance from, for example, white writers who didn’t understand why “Denzel” [Washington] or “Shonda” [Rhimes] were pop culture staples. Polygon further reported that many staffers felt they were tacitly discouraged from punching up specifically against rape culture because of Temkin’s pre-existing rape allegation.
CAH responded by pointing out examples of Black culture and attempts to send up rape culture making it into the humor of the cards. But the list of more conciliatory cards CAH offered in defense may have served to further highlight how contextual such humor is to begin with.
An absolutely hellish document composed by true psychos https://t.co/eO3Q9bfFyL pic.twitter.com/3DOy1P0mvn — Your Kickstarter Sucks - The Podcast! (@YourKickstarter) June 23, 2020
“I joined the writers room being told this is an attempt to make this a more inclusive game,” Barthwell told Vox. “When you are 21 and a white guy ... the things that you find funny are most likely the easiest things to make fun of and derive humor from. You also have to look at the culture around comedy that says if you care, if you want to use comedy to make things better, then you’re a sap. It’s funny to make fun of people caring, it’s funny to make fun of things that are offensive, but what you’re ending up doing is replicating systems of oppression that already exist.”
In an emailed statement to Vox, Cards Against Humanity’s remaining founders indicated that they take concerns about the efficacy of the game’s humor seriously:
Cards Against Humanity began as a satire of hollow morality and evangelical hypocrisy during the tail end of the George W. Bush administration. Over time, we have updated the game to reflect contemporary values and concerns. In 2020, that means taking aim at the white, reactionary ideologies and power structures that form Trump’s base of support. We publish major revisions every year, and fewer than 25% of the cards in the first release of Cards Against Humanity remain in the game now. These annual revisions are decided based on continuous playtesting with a diverse spread of players, as well as feedback from our staff and the wider public. When we discover that a card is predominantly being played at the expense of marginalized groups, we remove it.
Despite the company’s stated commitment to self-examination, some former employees noted a disconnect between CAH’s public-facing progressivism and its workplace environment. One former employee who asked to remain anonymous stressed that even though the anti-corporate mentality around the office engendered toxic elements — like the lack of an HR department — the company wasn’t averse to corporate practices when it benefited its founders. From the start, after all, the game’s massive profit came from exploiting cheap labor in China.
“I’ve always kinda struggled [with] representing the game in public at events and such,” another former employee who asked to remain anonymous told Vox. “But [I] was able to tell myself that they were ‘working on it’ ... I don’t think a lot of the work they do is fake woke, just sometimes very blinded by privilege.”
The ex-employee was equally dubious that the company could commit to larger meaningful change: “I’m in a sort of ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’ mindset,” they said. “There’s always room to learn, but the company has to be willing — and stop using the brand voice to hide behind sarcasm.”
Stewart likewise had a list of concrete changes she encouraged CAH to make in order to decrease its workplace toxicity. “The statement Cards Against Humanity has given and the actions the organization promises to take are only an overdue first step in making amends to those they’ve hurt,” she told Vox. “In order to truly evolve Cards Against Humanity, there needs to be drastic changes in the broader leadership team and day-to-day operations that allowed a toxic environment to thrive.”
Stewart’s suggested action items included removing the company’s COO who initially handled her complaints, creating a formal HR department, anti-racism and anti-harassment training, increasing equity among employees, and reducing the CAH founders’ roles overall. CAH declined to comment on Stewart’s requested changes.
As for Temkin, the outcome of his harassment allegations is complex. He retains a 1/8 share in the company as one of its original eight founders; in their email to Vox, CAH’s founders claimed that buying out his remaining share would be an adverse move: “Legally, we’re unable to seize his 1/8 share without buying him out, which would only reward Max. We are not willing to do that.” (Vox has reached out to Temkin for comment.)
While most people Vox spoke with seemed satisfied by his departure, a CAH contractor who asked to remain anonymous told Vox that they didn’t want Temkin and his actions to be forgotten. “I do not want Temkin to withdraw and hide,” they said. “I really honestly hope that he will do the work needed to right these wrongs. I want him to remember that it isn’t easy, nor is it instant, and he needs to practice the understanding and philosophy he once preached.”
Multiple people Vox spoke with believe CAH is capable of positive change moving forward, for its workplace and its game’s humor. “Part of why I worked there even when I didn’t feel completely safe,” one source said, “was that I believed there was potential to do good work for the community with the immense amount of money that game brings in.”
“I do want to say there are many talented and good people who continue to work there and are pushing for change,” Stewart told Vox. “My hope is that leadership will listen and elevate those voices who have been silenced for so long.”
“My hope is that the future of this company, if it has one, is defined by its employees,” Short said, calling for a structural overhaul. “Time for the boy kings to step down.”
But for change to be lasting, it may need to come with an overhaul of the company’s spirit as well as its structure. In 2017, Temkin told Vox in an interview that the team behind Cards Against Humanity is happiest with their comedy when it’s rooted in something real. In retrospect, that statement seems to be an indictment of the real toxicity that for many years lay dormant behind many of its “jokes” — until they all came home to roost at once.
Update: CAH clarified to Vox that it declined to publish the “Denzel” card because the company had previously included it in a 2014 expansion pack. This piece has also been updated with additional information from Cards Against Humanity regarding specific allegations as well as cards that have been removed from CAH decks. We have also removed a link and reference to a tweet, and clarified the description of Hutus and Tutsis as Rwandans.


vox--2020-06-26--Outdoor dining and drinking is allowed. But is it safe?

For the past three months , Americans across the country have been sheltering , maybe miserably , in place .
Governors and mayors , taking the advice of health officials , shut down almost all activities — restaurants , bars , movie theaters , gyms , hair salons , amusement parks — to curb the spread of the coronavirus .
From coast to coast , people have been asked to spend their days , nights , and weekends at home .
That ’ s slowly changing as states and cities start to reopen — some like Arizona and Florida have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rising case rates .
The specific restrictions depend on city and county levels , but the general takeaway is that not everything comes back at once .
Salons and barbershops couldn ’ t open right away .
In some states , gyms have had to implement new changes .
Concerts and Broadway shows are still off the table .
School openings in fall remain uncertain .
For restaurants and bars , the first establishments allowed to open are those with outdoor dining and drinking space .
This might feel like a privilege for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ days dining in the monotony of our homes .
Yet our new freedom comes with its own set of uncertainties .
Stuff that we may not have thought about before — a cough at another table ; a waiter pouring us a glass of water or wine ; a bartender plopping a garnish into a drink ; very loud brunch talking — takes on a new light now considering what we know about the coronavirus and how it spreads .
What exactly does “ outdoors ” mean ?
Just how safe is it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of other people ?
How do we eat or drink with a mask on ?
Should we even be eating and drinking outside at all ?
I asked health experts and bar owners the practical ( and maybe impractical ) questions we have surrounding the new rules .
Their answers will hopefully shed some light on how we can enjoy eating and drinking out again while keeping ourselves and the people around us as safe as possible .
1 ) Why is outside dining and drinking considered safer ?
In the second stage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , outdoor dining and drinking is allowed but indoor dining isn ’ t ( yet ) .
The same goes for New Jersey .
This points to outdoor dining being safer , and the reason , according to Stephen S. Morse , a professor of epidemiology at Columbia ’ s Mailman School of Public Health , is air circulation .
In an outdoor space , “ there would generally be much more air movement , so particles containing the virus would dissipate faster , ” he told me .
Anne-Marie Gloster , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s School of Public Health , has been studying the pandemic ’ s impact .
She said that the more air you have circulating around you , the less risk the environment presents .
And if you have a lot of air circulation , chances are there ’ s much more space between you and other people .
“ If someone sneezes in a tight space , like an elevator , those particles are trapped in that space , ” Gloster told me .
“ These particles can be moved around by human @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it more likely that you can inhale them or have these particles land on your hands or in your eyes .
Being outside often means you can have an easier time creating that 6-foot buffer of space between people.
” Obviously , any space that isn ’ t indoors is outdoors — like sidewalks and backyards .
But what happens to our risk in a tented space ?
Or what happens to a space that has a high roof but isn ’ t walled off ?
Does our risk increase ?
“ I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ open sides can still be called outside .
In hotter climates and on sunnier days , the shade protection is necessary for comfort and sun protection , ” Gloster said .
“ Air can still circulate freely in those environments.
” The less space and air movement a place has , the greater the risk , so if your “ outdoor ” space feels like close quarters , keep that in mind .
3 ) Are we putting staff at risk ?
Yes .
The general rule is every time we expose ourselves @ @ @ @ @ @ @ risk to ourselves and to the people we come into contact with .
This is why health directives have specifically said to minimize nonessential trips and contact with other people .
Staffers are putting in a lot of effort to give you the privilege of eating and drinking outside , so tip accordingly Going to a restaurant or bar increases your risk and the risk of the people who work there .
Staff , who are commuting to work , taking orders , serving multiple parties , clearing dishes and utensils , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kitchen , will be facing more exposure than the average person .
That makes it important for owners to take precautions to keep their staff as safe as its patrons .
And , as Morse explained , to follow health protocols like keeping masks on , using hand sanitizer , and “ observe all the hygienic precautions.
” Staffers are putting in a lot of effort to give you the privilege of eating and drinking outside , so tip accordingly .
4 ) What can bars and restaurants to do keep patrons safe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plan differs slightly when it comes to stages of reopening .
But generally , health officials have mandated that restaurants and bars maintain social distancing rules by placing tables 6 feet apart and cutting capacity .
Some states also require staffers to wear masks .
In Manhattan , Ravi DeRossi is trying to go the extra step .
He ’ s beginning to open his cocktail bars and restaurants — Avant Garden and Amor y Amargo — for outdoor drinking and dining .
“ Right now , we just have outside dining and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ apart and we ’ re not allowing groups larger than four , ” he said .
“ On the tables , we have individual sanitation wipes .
We also have hand sanitizer everywhere .
We clean the bathroom after every single person .
We do temperature checks on the staff when they get in .
And everybody wears masks the entire time , as well as gloves , and we ’ ve also taken out almost all garnishes from our cocktails for now.
” DeRossi says he ’ s primarily concerned with minimizing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
A big part of that responsibility is on patrons following the new rules , and DeRossi said his patrons at both locations have been respectful by understanding and following the new health protocols .
“ We ’ ve run really tight ships at all our cocktail bars — they ’ re all seated-only bars , and we essentially run them like restaurants .
We don ’ t allow crowding , ” he said .
“ I think our clientele is pretty responsible and willing , you know .
We ’ re going @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and if they don ’ t want to comply , then they just have to go somewhere else.
” If you ’ re trying to assess whether the restaurant you ’ re considering eating at is taking precautions seriously , distanced tables , masked staff , and enhanced sanitation measures are all hallmarks to look out for .
5 ) So how are we supposed to eat and drink with masks on ?
While many of us know how to eat and drink and how to wear a mask , we haven @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doing them all at the same time .
Is there a strategy ?
Should we be pulling up our masks after every bite ?
“ Keep your mask on while waiting for your food , take it off and eat , and then put it back on when you are done is the best strategy ” Constant remasking is “ usually impractical ( and not much fun ) , ” Morse said .
“ However , do observe the other precautions.
” He explained that the annoying reality of mask-wearing is what makes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ Some people may feel more comfortable putting their masks back on between courses .
Be careful not to get into the habit of relaxing precautions at other times.
” Gloster echoed that sentiment , laying out her preferred strategy .
“ Keep your mask on while waiting for your food , take it off and eat , and then put it back on when you are done is the best strategy , ” she said .
“ Make sure that you put your mask away and not just on the table @ @ @ @ @ @ @ feel it ’ s a clean surface.
” I also asked about face shields — the kind your dentist might wear and the type of PPE that some health care workers wear on top of masks .
They ’ re easier to disinfect and protect the wearer ’ s eyes as well .
They ’ re also valuable in that they make it easier for people who depend on lip-reading .
But they ’ re not a game changer for diners , sadly .
“ You can easily drink from a straw with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ else , ” Gloster said .
“ I like the face shield because they allow us to read facial expressions , but they are not easy to eat with.
” 6 ) Who should we be eating with ?
The ongoing advice from health officials has been that the people we live with — families , roommates , significant others — are the only people we should be interacting with .
That ’ s because we share the same environments and risk levels with said people and , ideally , have open communication @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , etc.
, that we are taking .
But does this mean the people we live with are the people we will be drinking outside and eating with ?
Is scenery all that ’ s changing ?
This isn ’ t completely realistic ( see : Americans from coast to coast ignoring social distancing rules ) .
Humans are human , and epidemiologists know that humans are going to do human things like see each other .
It then becomes a personal assessment of risk as states relax some social distancing rules .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ of socially acceptable friends , ” Gloster said .
“ My family has done the same .
It requires having frank discussions about everyone ’ s risk level and comfort zone with risk , then agreeing to adhere to the same kind of precautions so that the groups can socialize with less risk.
” Essentially , an option for some people is to socialize with a closed group of friends who have a similar mindset .
As epidemiologists told my colleague Sigal Samuel in April , this works better in theory than execution @ @ @ @ @ @ @ honest .
The key part of this advice then is clear communication and comfort .
For this idea — socializing with a specific group of people — to work , people have to act responsibly and with honesty about the trips they ’ re taking , how many people they ’ re socializing with , etc .
It ’ s important to remember , too , as Morse pointed out , that social distancing , hygiene precautions , and mask-wearing should be maintained regardless of whom you ’ re eating or drinking with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doubt , there ’ s absolutely nothing wrong with staying home .
7 ) What ’ s working in South Korea ?
And can it work here ?
As the coronavirus pandemic weaves its way around the world , we ’ ve been able to see which countries have done a better job and which ones haven ’ t been handling it well at all .
The United States is part of the latter group , while South Korea ’ s model is considered one of the best .
One of the things @ @ @ @ @ @ @ well is not only get its citizens to buy into the social distancing measures , but also supplement that with robust and extensive contact tracing — essentially testing as many people as possible who were in contact with someone who was sick .
One of the ways South Korea ’ s government is doing this in bars and nightclubs is making its citizens scan a specific QR code before entering one of these establishments .
That code contains personal contact information and allows the government to contact and trace people in case they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ While this helps keep the virus down and allows for rapid , thorough response , it ’ s also a major privacy issue .
And it ’ s hard to see something similar happening in the US , where the simple act of wearing a mask has become politicized , even as the country reported that its coronavirus cases hit a single-day record of 38,115 new reported infections on June 24 .
The bottom line : Any time we take a trip out of our homes and come into contact with other people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the virus .
This applies to dining out as well , and the people working at bars and restaurants — tip generously .
The good news is that drinking and eating outside minimizes our risk , so if we do decide to partake in this reacquired privilege , we should do our best to maintain all the good habits we learned .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power @ @ @ @ @ @ @ never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

For the past three months, Americans across the country have been sheltering, maybe miserably, in place. Governors and mayors, taking the advice of health officials, shut down almost all activities — restaurants, bars, movie theaters, gyms, hair salons, amusement parks — to curb the spread of the coronavirus. From coast to coast, people have been asked to spend their days, nights, and weekends at home.
That’s slowly changing as states and cities start to reopen — some like Arizona and Florida have already opened even in the face of rising case rates.
The specific restrictions depend on city and county levels, but the general takeaway is that not everything comes back at once. Salons and barbershops couldn’t open right away. In some states, gyms have had to implement new changes. Concerts and Broadway shows are still off the table. School openings in fall remain uncertain. For restaurants and bars, the first establishments allowed to open are those with outdoor dining and drinking space.
This might feel like a privilege for many of us who have spent 100-plus days dining in the monotony of our homes. Yet our new freedom comes with its own set of uncertainties.
Stuff that we may not have thought about before — a cough at another table; a waiter pouring us a glass of water or wine; a bartender plopping a garnish into a drink; very loud brunch talking — takes on a new light now considering what we know about the coronavirus and how it spreads.
What exactly does “outdoors” mean? Just how safe is it to eat and drink in the company of other people? How do we eat or drink with a mask on? Should we even be eating and drinking outside at all?
I asked health experts and bar owners the practical (and maybe impractical) questions we have surrounding the new rules. Their answers will hopefully shed some light on how we can enjoy eating and drinking out again while keeping ourselves and the people around us as safe as possible.
1) Why is outside dining and drinking considered safer?
In the second stage of New York City’s plan, outdoor dining and drinking is allowed but indoor dining isn’t (yet). The same goes for New Jersey. This points to outdoor dining being safer, and the reason, according to Stephen S. Morse, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, is air circulation.
In an outdoor space, “there would generally be much more air movement, so particles containing the virus would dissipate faster,” he told me.
Anne-Marie Gloster, a lecturer at the University of Washington’s School of Public Health, has been studying the pandemic’s impact. She said that the more air you have circulating around you, the less risk the environment presents. And if you have a lot of air circulation, chances are there’s much more space between you and other people.
“If someone sneezes in a tight space, like an elevator, those particles are trapped in that space,” Gloster told me. “These particles can be moved around by human movements in close proximity and therefore make it more likely that you can inhale them or have these particles land on your hands or in your eyes. Being outside often means you can have an easier time creating that 6-foot buffer of space between people.”
2) What counts as “outdoors”?
Obviously, any space that isn’t indoors is outdoors — like sidewalks and backyards. But what happens to our risk in a tented space? Or what happens to a space that has a high roof but isn’t walled off? Does our risk increase?
“I think large tents with a top and open sides can still be called outside. In hotter climates and on sunnier days, the shade protection is necessary for comfort and sun protection,” Gloster said. “Air can still circulate freely in those environments.”
The less space and air movement a place has, the greater the risk, so if your “outdoor” space feels like close quarters, keep that in mind.
3) Are we putting staff at risk?
Yes. The general rule is every time we expose ourselves to more people, we increase our risk to ourselves and to the people we come into contact with. This is why health directives have specifically said to minimize nonessential trips and contact with other people.
Staffers are putting in a lot of effort to give you the privilege of eating and drinking outside, so tip accordingly
Going to a restaurant or bar increases your risk and the risk of the people who work there.
Staff, who are commuting to work, taking orders, serving multiple parties, clearing dishes and utensils, and spending time in a hot and enclosed kitchen, will be facing more exposure than the average person.
That makes it important for owners to take precautions to keep their staff as safe as their patrons. And, as Morse explained, to follow health protocols like keeping masks on, using hand sanitizer, and “observe all the hygienic precautions.” Staffers are putting in a lot of effort to give you the privilege of eating and drinking outside, so tip accordingly.
4) What can bars and restaurants do to keep patrons safe?
Again, every state’s plan differs slightly when it comes to stages of reopening. But generally, health officials have mandated that restaurants and bars maintain social distancing rules by placing tables 6 feet apart and cutting capacity. Some states also require staffers to wear masks.
In Manhattan, Ravi DeRossi is trying to go the extra step. He’s beginning to open his cocktail bars and restaurants — Avant Garden and Amor y Amargo — for outdoor drinking and dining.
“Right now, we just have outside dining and all of our tables are 6 feet apart and we’re not allowing groups larger than four,” he said. “On the tables, we have individual sanitation wipes. We also have hand sanitizer everywhere. We clean the bathroom after every single person. We do temperature checks on the staff when they get in. And everybody wears masks the entire time, as well as gloves, and we’ve also taken out almost all garnishes from our cocktails for now.”
DeRossi says he’s primarily concerned with minimizing risk for his patrons and his staff. A big part of that responsibility is on patrons following the new rules, and DeRossi said his patrons at both locations have been respectful by understanding and following the new health protocols.
“We’ve run really tight ships at all our cocktail bars — they’re all seated-only bars, and we essentially run them like restaurants. We don’t allow crowding,” he said. “I think our clientele is pretty responsible and willing, you know. We’re going to be very strict about our rules, and if they don’t want to comply, then they just have to go somewhere else.”
If you’re trying to assess whether the restaurant you’re considering eating at is taking precautions seriously, distanced tables, masked staff, and enhanced sanitation measures are all hallmarks to look out for.
5) So how are we supposed to eat and drink with masks on?
While many of us know how to eat and drink and how to wear a mask, we haven’t had a lot of practice doing them all at the same time. Is there a strategy? Should we be pulling up our masks after every bite?
“Keep your mask on while waiting for your food, take it off and eat, and then put it back on when you are done is the best strategy”
Constant remasking is “usually impractical (and not much fun),” Morse said. “However, do observe the other precautions.”
He explained that the annoying reality of mask-wearing is what makes dining and drinking out hard to do. “Some people may feel more comfortable putting their masks back on between courses. Be careful not to get into the habit of relaxing precautions at other times.”
Gloster echoed that sentiment, laying out her preferred strategy.
“Keep your mask on while waiting for your food, take it off and eat, and then put it back on when you are done is the best strategy,” she said. “Make sure that you put your mask away and not just on the table unless you have sanitized it or you feel it’s a clean surface.”
I also asked about face shields — the kind your dentist might wear and the type of PPE that some health care workers wear on top of masks. They’re easier to disinfect and protect the wearer’s eyes as well. They’re also valuable in that they make it easier for people who depend on lip-reading. But they’re not a game changer for diners, sadly.
“You can easily drink from a straw with a face shield, but hardly anything else,” Gloster said. “I like the face shield because they allow us to read facial expressions, but they are not easy to eat with.”
6) Who should we be eating with?
The ongoing advice from health officials has been that the people we live with — families, roommates, significant others — are the only people we should be interacting with. That’s because we share the same environments and risk levels with said people and, ideally, have open communication about things like commutes, essential trips, etc., that we are taking.
But does this mean the people we live with are the people we will be drinking outside and eating with? Is scenery all that’s changing?
This isn’t completely realistic (see: Americans from coast to coast ignoring social distancing rules). Humans are human, and epidemiologists know that humans are going to do human things like see each other. It then becomes a personal assessment of risk as states relax some social distancing rules.
“Many more people are creating bubbles of socially acceptable friends,” Gloster said. “My family has done the same. It requires having frank discussions about everyone’s risk level and comfort zone with risk, then agreeing to adhere to the same kind of precautions so that the groups can socialize with less risk.”
Essentially, an option for some people is to socialize with a closed group of friends who have a similar mindset.
As epidemiologists told my colleague Sigal Samuel in April, this works better in theory than execution as people are fallible and sometimes not honest.
The key part of this advice, then, is clear communication and comfort. For this idea — socializing with a specific group of people — to work, people have to act responsibly and with honesty about the trips they’re taking, how many people they’re socializing with, etc.
It’s important to remember, too, as Morse pointed out, that social distancing, hygiene precautions, and mask-wearing should be maintained regardless of whom you’re eating or drinking with. And if there’s any doubt, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with staying home.
7) What’s working in South Korea? And can it work here?
As the coronavirus pandemic weaves its way around the world, we’ve been able to see which countries have done a better job and which ones haven’t been handling it well at all. The United States is part of the latter group, while South Korea’s model is considered one of the best.
One of the things South Korea has been able to do well is not only get its citizens to buy into the social distancing measures, but also supplement that with robust and extensive contact tracing — essentially testing as many people as possible who were in contact with someone who was sick.
One of the ways South Korea’s government is doing this in bars and nightclubs is making its citizens scan a specific QR code before entering one of these establishments. That code contains personal contact information and allows the government to contact and trace people in case they’re exposed to the virus.
While this helps keep the virus down and allows for rapid, thorough response, it’s also a major privacy issue. And it’s hard to see something similar happening in the US, where the simple act of wearing a mask has become politicized, even as the country reported that its coronavirus cases hit a single-day record of 38,115 new reported infections on June 24.
The bottom line: Any time we take a trip out of our homes and come into contact with other people, it raises the risk of exposure to the virus. This applies to dining out as well, and to the people working at bars and restaurants — tip generously. The good news is that drinking and eating outside minimizes our risk, so if we do decide to partake in this reacquired privilege, we should do our best to maintain all the good habits we’ve learned.


vox--2020-06-26--Disney is overhauling Splash Mountain to remove the ride’s ties to a racist film

Disney ’ s Splash Mountain ride , the famous log flume that ’ s popular at both the Disneyland and Disney World theme parks , is getting a facelift .
And not just any ol ’ facelift , but a major one that will finally scrub Splash Mountain of its ties to Walt Disney ’ s infamously insensitive 1946 film Song of the South .
The Walt Disney Parks division announced Thursday that a project to “ completely reimagine ” Splash Mountain began last year , and that the ride ’ s new theme is inspired by Disney ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Frog .
The film notably stars Disney ’ s first black princess , Tiana , who arrived 72 years after Snow White kicked off the Disney Princess canon .
Disney did not reveal when Splash Mountain will relaunch with its new theme , or how long the ride will be closed during the retooling process , and has not responded to Vox ’ s request for comment .
Replacing Splash Mountain ’ s current look with the characters and setting of The Princess and the Frog feels like a pointed response to long-standing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with Song of the South .
Splash Mountain , which opened in 1989 , features woodland creatures and stars the character Br ’ er Rabbit on his adventure to avoid the clutches of Br ’ er Fox and Br ’ er Bear .
Visitors sit in log boats that move slowly through these scenes , until their journey culminates with the boats sliding down a steep waterfall , landing in a “ briarpatch.
” Although it ’ s not obvious from looking at the ride , Splash Mountain borrows directly from Song of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ er Rabbit is told in the film by the character of Uncle Remus , a black man who works on a plantation in the Reconstruction-era American South .
Uncle Remus was a storybook character created in 1881 who told Aesop ’ s Fables-esque folk tales , intended by white author Joel Chandler Harris to convey the difficulties of Black life in the Deep South .
But Harris ’ s characterization of Remus as speaking in stereotypical Black Southern vernacular has not stood the test of time , and Uncle Remus is now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ entertainment .
When Song of the South was released in 1946 , the Uncle Remus character had largely been forgotten .
The film told an original story based on some of Harris ’ s Uncle Remus stories , bringing the character into a wider public consciousness .
Walt Disney made few changes to Uncle Remus himself , preserving the character ’ s deference to the white plantation owners for whom he worked and their families , as well as his use of stereotypical Black Southern vernacular .
Despite criticisms from black writers hired @ @ @ @ @ @ @ racial sensitivity — setting benchmarks the movie largely failed to meet — Song of the South received positive reviews and performed well at the box office .
It even went on to win the 1948 Oscar for Best Original Song , for “ Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah.
” But Hollywood in the 1940s was still heavily segregated , as was the rest of the pre-civil rights era United States , and Black anti-racism activists critiqued the film after its release as helping “ to perpetuate a dangerously glorified picture of slavery.
” Disney disowned Song of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has lived on through Splash Mountain Disney rereleased Song of the South in theaters multiple times in the years after its release , as it did with many of its popular movies throughout the mid- to late 20th century .
Song of the South ’ s last public theatrical screening was for its 40th anniversary in 1986 — three years after production had started on Splash Mountain , a ride inspired by the film .
Back in 1983 , Disneyland theme park ride designers ( known as Imagineers ) had been asked to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; Song of the South came to mind , and the Imagineers centered the different animal characters from Uncle Remus ’ s tales in its design .
( This history is discussed in the excellent podcast You Must Remember This , which devoted an entire episode to how Song of the South influenced Splash Mountain . )
But after Song of the South ’ s 1986 theatrical run , then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner said that the company would shove the film into its so-called vault , due to its dated racist stereotypes .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ its Song of the South elements , including its animal characters and the use of two songs from the film : “ Everybody ’ s Got a Laughing Place ” and the classic “ Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah.
” Song of the South has never been released on home video , and by the time Splash Mountain opened in 1989 , Disney had effectively disowned the film .
But since the link between Splash Mountain and Song of the South remained , critics over the years have often called out Splash Mountain for its connection to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ earlier this month : A petition began circulating online in mid-June that demanded Disney redesign the ride .
As Black Lives Matter protests , campaigns , and awareness ramp up nationwide , many companies have been forced to deal with their histories of racism .
For Disney Parks , that includes the origins of Splash Mountain .
Disney said as much in announcing that the ride will be reworked , albeit in much more ambiguous terms .
“ With [ Disney Parks ’ ] long-standing history of updating attractions and adding new magic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of particular importance today , ” reads the announcement .
“ The new concept is inclusive — one that all of our guests can connect with and be inspired by , and it speaks to the diversity of the millions of people who visit our parks each year.
” Neither Disneyland nor Disney World has reopened since the coronavirus pandemic forced both parks to close in March .
Maybe that makes now the perfect time for renovation work to begin righting Splash Mountain ’ s course .
Every day at Vox , we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and volume that this moment requires .
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Disney’s Splash Mountain ride, the famous log flume that’s popular at both the Disneyland and Disney World theme parks, is getting a facelift. And not just any ol’ facelift, but a major one that will finally scrub Splash Mountain of its ties to Walt Disney’s infamously insensitive 1946 film Song of the South.
The Walt Disney Parks division announced Thursday that a project to “completely reimagine” Splash Mountain began last year, and that the ride’s new theme is inspired by Disney’s 2009 animated film The Princess and the Frog. The film notably stars Disney’s first black princess, Tiana, who arrived 72 years after Snow White kicked off the Disney Princess canon. Disney did not reveal when Splash Mountain will relaunch with its new theme, or how long the ride will be closed during the retooling process, and has not responded to Vox’s request for comment.
Replacing Splash Mountain’s current look with the characters and setting of The Princess and the Frog feels like a pointed response to long-standing complaints over Splash Mountain’s association with Song of the South. Splash Mountain, which opened in 1989, features woodland creatures and stars the character Br’er Rabbit on his adventure to avoid the clutches of Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear. Visitors sit in log boats that move slowly through these scenes, until their journey culminates with the boats sliding down a steep waterfall, landing in a “briarpatch.”
Although it’s not obvious from looking at the ride, Splash Mountain borrows directly from Song of the South. The story of Br’er Rabbit is told in the film by the character of Uncle Remus, a black man who works on a plantation in the Reconstruction-era American South. Uncle Remus was a storybook character created in 1881 who told Aesop’s Fables-esque folk tales, intended by white author Joel Chandler Harris to convey the difficulties of Black life in the Deep South. But Harris’s characterization of Remus as speaking in stereotypical Black Southern vernacular has not stood the test of time, and Uncle Remus is now seen as an unquestionable example of racist entertainment.
When Song of the South was released in 1946, the Uncle Remus character had largely been forgotten. The film told an original story based on some of Harris’s Uncle Remus stories, bringing the character into a wider public consciousness. Walt Disney made few changes to Uncle Remus himself, preserving the character’s deference to the white plantation owners for whom he worked and their families, as well as his use of stereotypical Black Southern vernacular.
Despite criticisms from black writers hired to consult on the screenplay’s racial sensitivity — setting benchmarks the movie largely failed to meet — Song of the South received positive reviews and performed well at the box office. It even went on to win the 1948 Oscar for Best Original Song, for “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah.” But Hollywood in the 1940s was still heavily segregated, as was the rest of the pre-civil rights era United States, and Black anti-racism activists critiqued the film after its release as helping “to perpetuate a dangerously glorified picture of slavery.”
Disney disowned Song of the South decades ago, but it has lived on through Splash Mountain
Disney rereleased Song of the South in theaters multiple times in the years after its release, as it did with many of its popular movies throughout the mid- to late 20th century. Song of the South’s last public theatrical screening was for its 40th anniversary in 1986 — three years after production had started on Splash Mountain, a ride inspired by the film. Back in 1983, Disneyland theme park ride designers (known as Imagineers) had been asked to come up with a log flume ride; Song of the South came to mind, and the Imagineers centered the different animal characters from Uncle Remus’s tales in its design. (This history is discussed in the excellent podcast You Must Remember This, which devoted an entire episode to how Song of the South influenced Splash Mountain.)
But after Song of the South’s 1986 theatrical run, then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner said that the company would shove the film into its so-called vault, due to its dated racist stereotypes. But the still-in-progress Splash Mountain did retain its Song of the South elements, including its animal characters and the use of two songs from the film: “Everybody’s Got a Laughing Place” and the classic “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah.”
Song of the South has never been released on home video, and by the time Splash Mountain opened in 1989, Disney had effectively disowned the film. But since the link between Splash Mountain and Song of the South remained, critics over the years have often called out Splash Mountain for its connection to the film, including as recently as earlier this month: A petition began circulating online in mid-June that demanded Disney redesign the ride. As Black Lives Matter protests, campaigns, and awareness ramp up nationwide, many companies have been forced to deal with their histories of racism. For Disney Parks, that includes the origins of Splash Mountain.
Disney said as much in announcing that the ride will be reworked, albeit in much more ambiguous terms.
“With [Disney Parks’] long-standing history of updating attractions and adding new magic, the retheming of Splash Mountain is of particular importance today,” reads the announcement. “The new concept is inclusive — one that all of our guests can connect with and be inspired by, and it speaks to the diversity of the millions of people who visit our parks each year.”
Neither Disneyland nor Disney World has reopened since the coronavirus pandemic forced both parks to close in March. Maybe that makes now the perfect time for renovation work to begin righting Splash Mountain’s course.