The verdict in favor of Johnny Depp in the recent defamation trial between him and Amber Heard has generated a plethora of horrible takes. Candace McDuffie may have taken the cake for the worst one in an article published in The Root on June 1.
Depp vs. Heard has generated a massive following from social media to daily news. The defamation trial was put on full display for the public, and predictably both sides of the political spectrum were quick to give their two cents on the affair. Even more predictably, the left-wing nutjobs at The Root somehow managed to incorporate race into the trial, even when it is completely irrelevant to the event.
In her piece, McDuffie takes the side of Heard, who the court determined had defamed Depp and now owes him $15 million. The Root writer then makes the daft claim that “If the mistreatment of a wealthy blonde-haired, blue-eyed white actress is ridiculed by the world, what does that mean for Black women?”
I have an answer: nothing.
It means absolutely nothing for black women and these people know it. This entire article is obsessed with skin color, and is a perfect example of liberal race essentialism in which everything must in some way serve the narrative of oppression - even a trial between a divorced celebrity couple, which is completely removed from racial politics.
The facts are clear: Johnny Depp basically won the trial and proved in a court of law that Amber Heard defamed him with actual malice. Amber Heard was determined to be unreliable by a duly-appointed jury. Portraying her as a victim is factually wrong, and extending the issue to black women is a whole other level of disingenuous story-spinning.
But the left’s playbook has always been centered around victimhood. Even when their “victim” is proven to not be so, one must exist - or it must be created. And so McDuffie summons a victim out of thin air, spinning stories as is routine for the leftist media.
And The Root proves that with yet another horrible take.