I was curious what all the fuss was about…
Here, are some highlights from Dave Chappelle’s very controversial latest Netflix special, The Closer:
‘I can’t help but feel like, if slaves had baby oil & booty shorts, we might have been free a 100 years sooner.
He said: ‘Careful, Dave, they after you!’
I said: ‘What? One they or many theys?’
‘I’m not indifferent to people’s suffering, because I know it’s hard to be everybody.’
‘I ask you why is it easier for Bruce Jenner to change his gender than it is for Cassius Clay to change his name?’
I know that Trans will make up words to win “
arguments.’
Even though many are calling to ‘cancel him’ &
claiming he lacks empathy, I don’t agree. With all due respect, I think Chappelle speaks from a place of tough love and that he did not go too far. The case can be made, however, that contemporary American culture has.
I do not believe as his detractors say that he is transphobic or ‘punching down’ on a community. In fact, in his special, he is very careful to take exception to this loaded term, "punching down" -- saying that one would have to feel superior to do so and he does not.
Meantime, here’s the irony. Ashlee M Preston, the trans activist who led the anti-Dave Chapelle protest outside Netflix has been revealed to have a history of misogyny & racism. She expressed particular hatred for “Asian b*tches.”
Dave is a comedian, social commentator, and provocateur and I, actually, admire him for speaking up. Further, I imagine that his pro-Palestinian remark about "Space Jews" will also upset some people who will call him anti-Semitic:
"In my movie idea, we find out that these aliens are originally from earth — that they’re from an ancient civilization that achieved interstellar travel and left the earth thousands of years ago. Some other planet they go to, and things go terrible for them on the other planet, so they come back to earth, [and] decide that they want to claim the earth for their very own. It’s a pretty good plotline, huh? I call it “Space Jews.”
As I understand it, comedians are meant to hold up mirrors to our absurdities and injustices and if it
makes us uncomfortable, so be it…
What’s more as someone who comes from a part of the world (Africa) where there is genuine suffering, deprivation and oppression, I think it’s gotten dangerously silly in USA, today, with the overemphasis on gender, pronouns, etc… Which is why I find this fuss frivolous.
It’s worth considering if this cultural sea change occurring in USA Today is for the better or a question of mass confusion and lostness..
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” ― J. Krishnamurti.
Plus, given American history & present moment, Dave Is justified to take white people to task.
So, when all is said and done, I found Dave’s show funny because it was smart and did not mind ruffling feathers. But, common sense is like a joke, it loses its power when you have to explain it 🤷🏻♂️
culture has..
