Dear sheetcakers, Tina Fey sympathizers and Co.,

As an unapologetic fan of both “Saturday Night Live” and “Weekend Update” co-host Michael Che, I was pretty excited when I saw that the summer edition of “Weekend Update” had aired. After a cringe-worthy cameo from Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers was finally over, the single mom of comedy herself, Tina Fey, hopped on the mic. I love me some Tina Fey. Her whole “look, I’m a frazzled, middle-aged woman who is barely holding my life together” bit never fails, but a lot of what she did during the show fell flat for me, namely the cake-eating.

This so-called “grassroots movement,” dubbed “sheetcaking,” that our beloved Tina Fey started during her cameo really has liberals gassed up about being complacent, faux-activists. I can literally hear white women everywhere exhaling with relief. “Finally, someone who understands that even though I disagree with all these pesky injustices, I haven’t the energy or social skills to actually do anything about it.” 

Don’t worry, you don’t have to tell me that Fey was just joking, or that the whole bit was just satire, meant to call out those very liberals. Contrary to popular belief, I do have a sense of humor and can use context clues to figure out when a joke is being told. Unfortunately, we were not all blessed with this gift (enter #sheetcaking, going viral).

As if it weren’t bad enough already, self-proclaimed liberals now feel validated in their inaction. Instead of just sitting around doing nothing, they are now bragging about sitting around and doing nothing. This is their prerogative, I guess, but the main issue that has risen out of this whole ordeal is the way sheetcakers are blatantly dismissing the complaints of those speaking out against this new “movement.”

When someone who is actually negatively affected by things like white supremacy rallies and confederate glorification expresses discontent with the way someone who is largely unaffected (i.e. a rich white woman) is addressing the issues, why should we be silenced in such a way? Dismissing us as whiny hard-asses who can’t take a joke is not only belittling but counterproductive. Sit at home and eat cake if you want to, but don’t act like the victim when you’re called out for it. Just admit that you don’t actually care about the plight of black people enough to do anything productive, and move on. The excuses are getting tiring and the straight up condescension is just irritating.

Sincerely,

The Third Estate