What Does Dave Chappelle's "Cancelation" Say About Us?

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How about this comment from my mom’s friend sitting next to me, a half-Jewish woman who I worried about offending by clicking “play” on Netflix on the now-infamous Chappelle special?

“I don’t understand what the controversy is about…”

Well, yeah – that was the best outcome I could’ve hoped for when I pressured two aging hippies, activists who pushed for the Gloria Steinem / Helen Ready phase of feminism. But they also participated in the stuff that led MLK and Rosa Parks to fight hard for their place at the front of the bus. Full disclosure – one is my mother. The other is a woman I’ll just call Bob (challenge parenthetical: use Hitchhiker’s Guide to grok the Bob reference) so that nobody cancels this blue-haired beauty. Bob danced with Mama Cass and performed with the Rockettes. She is half-Jewish.

Archie Bunker is top of my mind as I write these words, and I know that Norman Lear knew what he was doing with that comedy. But he’s a Space Jew (jk… duh).

What did Bob say to me when Chappelle’s confessional comedy canon-fire finished with a punchline about sucking dick?

“I don’t understand what the controversy is about…” — Bob

Who’ll be the hero of the inevitable swing of the pendulum towards some kind of true north — fucking David Chappelle. I won’t use that N-word here, because I’m not allowed. I don’t want to be aborted before the fetus becomes human, and I’m not brown like Chappelle. Actually, I will use it – he’s a Bad-ass N – as in Nostradamus. A hard one who tells the truth. And we can all learn from his truth.

All this is to say – Chappelle is a good lad, for real. He’s not just a comedic genius. He’s a man who fought against all odds, a scrapper (like my mom and her friend) looking to break the chain of privileged control of wealth and do his mfg thing. He knows his people and his history – and not just the black part of it all. And he is funny as fuck.

Here’s the thing about it: I believe that America is *UN – FUCKING – AMERICAN*right now, and Chappelle fired a giant warning flare into the sky, an S.O.S. We need to talk, laugh, discuss things. We should not look for “gotcha” moments and reasons for hating one another.

We don’t all need to be homogenous robots praying at the altar of some sort of C culture of silliness. Why work if you can whine? Nah. People want to work. We need to be human. Humans are tribal and we will have bias. And then there’s this — stereotypes contain both truth and danger. Not forever-truth but truth that comes from history, from epigenetic behavior that crosses culture and art and charisma and bloodlines stretching back to Africa. That’s why I want to say this: Chappelle is our Nostradamus. If we look back years from now and identify a cultural inflection point, we will need a person in charge of that moment. That’s kind of the way we catalog history.

Excerpt from new Rasmussen poll rasmussenreports.com

If you can’t beat them, join ’em. Check out this newly published poll. These polls are super corrupt, I know. Just do the math. I mean – who wants jury duty or has time for this b.s.? Well-and-so, Facebook including Instagram – might be the altar to pray at for popular opinion. But… err… why is everyone on Facebook talking about what they had for breakfast and trolling for self-confidence from busted-up spaghetti code companies run by self-loathing geeks? I mean, who died and made Zuckerberg the foremost expert on how to be social? Sheesh – he comes across as the kind of dude who not only got shoved in the locker at high school but actually deserved it.

On a serious (not ‘suck my dick’… tsk-tsk) note, I will also say this about Mr. Chappelle: he’s worthy of comparison to the great comics who came before – everyone from Groucho to Gleeson to Lenny Bruce, Pryor, Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy, Rock, Tina Fey, and we cannot forget Carlin. But here’s the thing that might be more important – he really feels. He’s not out to judge, but to connect with everyone from trans people to the waiter at the fancy places he frequents. He’s an empath – and not in some kind of bullshit X-Files way.

He’s someone who keeps score according to a personal moral code that he cannot ignore and which informs his craft. That makes him a full-blown creator of literature and art who will be remembered for a long time to come. He’s a storyteller and social commentator on par with some of the world’s greatest – Oscar Wilde, James Baldwin, Dick Gregory, Lou Reed, Michael Lewis, Malcolm Gladwell, David Sedaris, Jay-Z, Regina King, Kendrick Lamar – writers and thinkers.

His (he / him / his) comedy is part of the new literature we need to consume because by doing so, we learn.

Thanks, Chappelle, for the S.O.S. We’ve got to save this fucking ship.

GOAT. Rising.

Dave Chappelle Photo by By Gemunu Amarasinghe (AP/Shutterstock)