Toxic misogyny behind the scenes of "Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj"

[WrenchNinja]

Around the same time that the issues with Ellen were becoming public this year, tweets from women of colour—especially South Asian women—who worked on Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, came out. They were sharing their experiences on Minhaj's lauded show as a gesture of solidarity with other people who worked on shows — shows that have been sold to the public as morally and ethically upright but which treated their staff in a dismal manner.


First, Sheila Vee, a former producer on the show, tweeted about her experience, only to go on to protect her tweets. That is understandable. After all, Minhaj is beloved by the "woke" Desis, and the social justice crowd in general. She was making herself a target by telling the truth.

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In response to Sheila Vee's tweets, other women of colour who worked on Patriot Act also came forward with their stories. These include Pakistani news producer and writer Nur Nasreen.

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Nasreen's point about a progressive ethos in front of the screen versus the hypocrisy of how un-progressively you treat the women of colour who work under you has really stuck with me. It is because, in my experience, this is what most social justice spaces have been like. For women like me, who have neither pretty or thin privilege, or light-skin or class privilege, social justice "activists" shun women like me because I do not have the connections and networks that they want access to in order to further their careers.

Many of these people are being lauded by our communities but if you talk to the most vulnerable amongst us, you will know how these people really treat those they see as having no value to them.

Nasreen's honest tweets prompted other women who worked on and around Patriot Act to talk about their experiences or what they have heard from others. New York Times writer Iva Dixit tweeted about how her friends on the show were made to feel.

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Saw this piece blowing up on Twitter. There's some more in it.

Are we just not gonna talk about Hassan Minhaj?

The Ellen debacle has been well documented. And by the Ellen debacle, I mean the bruhaha in which she has pretended to be nice and kind…

kaliandkalki.medium.com

I did not know about any of this back when it came out. Just really disappointing to be reading this.

 

[Squarehard]

Well that's too bad.

There goes another.

 

[julia crawford]

Fucking hell.

 

[Dice]

Why is being normal and nice so goddamn hard. It shouldn't be...but earth sucks.

 

[Khanimus]

This fucking guy

 

[Bear Patrol]

Wow...this fucking sucks.

I really hope the victims get the closure and recognition they deserve since I doubt they'll ever get the justice they should. I guess the showrunners were really about performative allyship instead of actually being allies when it came down to it.

 

[Hollywood Duo]

Welp

 

[anariel]

Dear people with power,

Please stop being assholes.

 

[Dyle]

Hadn't heard about this. I wonder whether the seeming lack of clarity on what exactly happened contributed to it being forgotten. None of the tweets seem to reference specific events or provide clear examples and I imagine that would helped them get more traction.

 

[BringBackSonics]

Well god damn.

 

[Lifejumper]

Fuuuuuuuck

 

[BossAttack]

And there goes that one.

 

[Heart of Poumn]

Wow. I didn't even know about this. It's wild how things can drift by silently when the right people don't give a damn.

 

[Plywood]

Hadn't heard about this. I wonder whether the seeming lack of clarity on what exactly happened contributed to it being forgotten. None of the tweets seem to reference specific events or provide clear examples and I imagine that would helped them get more traction.

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I think this is the issue, there isn't a direct claim and this isn't to undermine so much as it makes sense as to why there may not have been much word of it as the article seems frustated about.

 

[Nude_Tayne]

What an obnoxiously ambiguous article. What are the allegations?

 

[Messofanego]

This is especially disappointing when juxtaposed that the on-screen material was progressive and intersectional. I'm glad to hear the former staff speaking up.

 

[4 Get!]

This also needs to be pointed out from the article.

For women like me, who have neither pretty or thin privilege, or light-skin or class privilege, social justice "activists" shun women like me because I do not have the connections and networks that they want access to in order to further their careers.

Many of these people are being lauded by our communities but if you talk to the most vulnerable amongst us, you will know how these people really treat those they see as having no value to them.

The dissonance between the progressive way these people present themselves and how they actually treat people is THE reason I have stopped going to social justice events or being part of these c̵l̵i̵q̵u̵e̵s̵, oh I mean, communities.

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It's not the first time I've heard things go down like this and it sadly won't be the last time.

 

[MIMIC]

Soooo....what happened? I can't make out anything from the tweets.

 

[Dalek]

Sounds like it was awful for all of them but I wonder what the specifics are. It seems everyone is speaking cryptically and no one wants to be the "one" to come forward with specifics.

 

[DjDeathCool]

Human beings suck. Don't idolize them. Ever.

 

[Starviper]

This is especially disappointing when juxtaposed that the on-screen material was progressive and intersectional. I'm glad to hear the former staff speaking up.

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Yea I'd always thought the show was fairly progressive so that's super disappointing to hear the lead isn't as nice of a person as they appear to be onscreen. Wish we could go back to the days with Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart.

 

[Poltergust]

Hadn't heard about this. I wonder whether the seeming lack of clarity on what exactly happened contributed to it being forgotten. None of the tweets seem to reference specific events or provide clear examples and I imagine that would helped them get more traction.

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Yeah, I read through it and it's hard to pin things down.

Based on the number of accounts, I guess the takeaway is that the workplace was indeed toxic, but there's nothing tying Minhaj specifically to that. Although, since he is the star of the show it's likely he was at least made aware of it but just didn't speak up, which is indeed bad for a prominent progressive (this is assuming he had nothing to do with the toxicity himself, mind you).

 

[808s & Villainy]

Hadn't heard about this. I wonder whether the seeming lack of clarity on what exactly happened contributed to it being forgotten. None of the tweets seem to reference specific events or provide clear examples and I imagine that would helped them get more traction.

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Yeah, I was going through these tweets trying to hear what actually happened, but couldn't find anything. I can see why this vagueness makes it easier to just brush off than the more specific incidents and anecdotes about Ellen

 

[Holmes]

I really like(d?) Minhaj, so I would like to know exactly what went down so I can judge accordingly. Really doesn't sound good though.

 

[FF Seraphim]

Hadn't heard about this. I wonder whether the seeming lack of clarity on what exactly happened contributed to it being forgotten. None of the tweets seem to reference specific events or provide clear examples and I imagine that would helped them get more traction.

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Okay I was rereading the tweets and this is what I thought I was missing. I was wondering if I simply skipped over anything because there is nothing else there. Hopefully they will continue to talk out and the people responsible get held accountable.

 

[chefbags]

Soooo....what happened? I can't make out anything from the tweets.

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Yeah it feels quite vague. I hope to hear more from someone but I'd also understand if they don't considering the heat that would bring them.

Wonder if Hasan would say anything about it.

 

[Doggg]

Human beings suck. Don't idolize them. Ever.

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Especially when they're in a business as sleazy as entertainment. People shouldn't surprised when an entertainer turns out to be a piece of shit just because they share their politics or whatever.

 

[Tbm24]

Hadn't heard about this. I wonder whether the seeming lack of clarity on what exactly happened contributed to it being forgotten. None of the tweets seem to reference specific events or provide clear examples and I imagine that would helped them get more traction.

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Seems like this is the case from the tweets and the article. Which, with respects to the Article's writer asking why nothing was taken to task about it, I think the lack of specifics definitely is not helping. Though if course of these individuals don't want to be specific about it then that's up to them.

 

[chandoog]

This fucking guy

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Unless I'm missing something, none of the tweets or the article in the OP say anything about Hassan being an offender directly, one person is talking about the showrunner but that's the most specific thing I have seen.

Let's wait a bit for some more information before burying Hassan.

 

[Dalek]

By the way-if this is about Hassan, then the irony of him joining the cast of The Morning Show is mind blowing.

 

[jdmc13]

Unless I'm missing something, none of the tweets say anything about Hasan directly, one person is talking about the showrunner but that's the most specific thing I have seen.

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Yeah, my takeaway is that there were issues in the back of the house. They may have involved him, but he isn't being called out specifically.

 

[sapien85]

Terrible and disappointing considering what the show was supposed to represent.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

So what exactly happened here? These chains of tweets are hard to parse. Was Hasan the problem? Was the head writer the problem? Was it systemic?

Like I'm sorry but this is all extremely vague and while people don't need to share the bloody details of their trauma if they don't want to I'm not sure what takeaway they want us to pull from these tweets. Who was the bad guy here?

 

[My Blue Heaven]

Are people actually shocked by performative allyship by celebrities/pundits? I feel like a story like this happens like every 2-3 months or so, so and so celebrity projects
the right politics/attitudes and then is a total shit behind the scenes.

 

[rrc1594]

This should be looked into, but I'm also very confused about what is happening behind the scenes

 

[Dalek]

Are people actually shocked by performative allyship by celebrities/pundits? I feel like a story like this happens like every 2-3 months or so.

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What did Hassan do?

 

[Typographenia]

That's really terrible to learn. The topics and stories the show addressed were usually very informative and had a different perspective that was good to have.
Nobody deserves to be treated badly at work and made to feel so terrible they are breaking down in tears for days. That's awful, and the people working, researching, and writing for the show deserved so much better than that.

Hopefully exposing these issues and sharing their experiences helps them to heal and they have better work experiences ahead of them.

 

[Kmonk]

Soooo....what happened? I can't make out anything from the tweets.

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Yeah, I was going through these tweets trying to hear what actually happened, but couldn't find anything. I can see why this vagueness makes it easier to just brush off than the more specific incidents and anecdotes about Ellen

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Okay I was rereading the tweets and this is what I thought I was missing. I was wondering if I simply skipped over anything because there is nothing else there. Hopefully they will continue to talk out and the people responsible get held accountable.

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Joining with these voices. It's hard to generate much outrage, when we don't know even the nature of the allegations.

 

[Sunster]

Soooo....what happened? I can't make out anything from the tweets.

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read the whole article. nothing specific there either. it says "Where's the outcry?" but where are the allegations???

 

[My Blue Heaven]

What did Hassan do?

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At the very least it sounds like he was part of an environment that led to what appears to be mental breakdowns, burnout and gaslighting based on the tweets.

 

[Sordid Plebeian]

I remember reading about this, sad it didn't get the attention it deserved

 

[SageShinigami]

I read the article but like...everything in it was very vague. It's very frustrating though that this writer's room had multiple women in it and still managed to be toxic.

 

[Ramala]

Are they saying Minhaj himself treated them poorly or that the show in general was a hostile work environment? I browsed through the article and couldn't find anything specific.

 

[Bor Gullet]

These tweets are from June and August.

Why are they blowing up now?

 

[smileyforall220]

Hard for me to care about the outrage they are looking for when there isn't anything of substance in allegations or really anything but cryptic tweets. I understand not wanting backlash, but if you are going to tweet stuff like that then you need to have the receipts, otherwise it just looks like people who are airing grievances after leaving a show using the least responsible way of vague accusations.

 

[Effnine]

I'd like to know the details. When you're in a competitive industry, it's not all roses and sunshine. I don't understand why people are so quick to judge here without knowing anything.

 

[metalslimer]

The problem here is that there are no specific allegations from anyone that I read.

 

[Dalek]

Are they saying Minhaj himself treated them poorly or that the show in general was a hostile work environment? I browsed through the article and couldn't find anything specific.

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Everyone is being vague and no one is giving specifics - which allows speculation to run rampant.

 

[chandoog]

Are they saying Minhaj himself treated them poorly or that the show in general was a hostile work environment? I browsed through the article and couldn't find anything specific.

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The only specific mention is for the showrunner, none of the tweets or the article imply Hassan has done anything directly.

It's all really vague and I'm afraid this topic will devolve into "Fuck Hassan Minhaj" without proper information.

 

[WrenchNinja]

I was second guessing even posting this because the claims are vague but then, would these women who worked on the show come out at all if it was nothing? It's hard enough saying anything at all.