ETA: I apologize for being insensitive here. I should have underlined that of course the choice belongs only to Williams. If she had said, “I don’t want the job,” I would have left it there. Her saying “I’m not qualified” is what intrigued me, especially since I’ve read so much about Impostor Syndrome lately and that’s so often the language women use.
Again, I want to emphasize that I have enormous respect for Williams. I think she’s talented and funny and great. That said, Williams is not accountable to either old white tastemakers or, as the also talented and funny Wyatt Cenac pointed out, to young opinionated ones like me. The decision is entirely hers.
ETA II (2/18): I wrote that first apology early on, before I had the chance to read Jessica Williams’ full Tweeted response, and then my feed became overwhelming & impossible to sort through, especially with all the curse words, so I missed a lot of what came next. But now that I’m more caught up, I wanted to state officially and for the record, as I have on Twitter, that I was wrong. I was offensive and presumptuous; I messed up, and I’m sorry. Williams should not have had to deal with this shit: my calling her a “victim” of anything, my acting like I know better and could diagnose her with anything, all of it. Ugh. I’m leaving the post up, because at this point my stupid blog entry is News, and may it live in infamy. But I apologize, again. I am listening to folks and trying to learn, and I will try my hardest to be more damn careful & thoughtful in the future.
http://thebillfold.com/2015/02/on-the-daily-shows-jessica-williams-the-latest-high-profile-victim-of-impostor-syndrome/
I think Jessica Williams' response was great, by the way.