Tuesday, October 05, 2021

Dave Chappelle can kiss my black gay ass

Dave Chappelle needs to check his ignorance.

There is no other way to say this.

Dave Chappelle is an ignorant son of a bitch whose embrace of stereotypes about LGBTQ people do more to hurt both the LGBTQ and black community than any words or actions of the anti-LGBTQ right. 

First, a little background from LGBTQ Nation:

Comedian Dave Chappelle’s new Netflix special, The Closer, is his last for the service as he concludes a multi-project deal spanning several years and while he tries to pass it off as an examination of racism and LGBTQ issues, it comes across more as a hypocritical justification of a career spent making vulnerable people feel like shit. To cap off his numerous comedy specials, Chappelle pledged not to make jokes about the LGBTQ community any longer, offered to negotiate terms for rapper DaBaby, and announced he is a transgender exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) before launching into a derogatory diatribe about transgender women’s genitals.

That's not all. Chappelle proceeded to attack all LGBTQ people:

Throughout the special, he repeatedly circles back to pitting racism against anti-LGBTQ animus. After pointing out that DaBaby had killed another man and still continued to perform and escaped punishment, but got “cancelled” after making incredibly derogatory comments about gay people, Chappelle made the comparison direct. “Do you see where I’m going with this?” he quipped. “In our country, you can shoot and kill a n****r, but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings!” 
 
Then he proceeded with more junk:

“Gender is a fact,” he continued. “Every human being in this room, every human being on Earth, had to pass through the legs of a woman to be on Earth. That is a fact. Now, I am not saying that to say trans women aren’t women, I am just saying that those pussies that they got… you know what I mean? I’m not saying it’s not pussy, but it’s Beyond Pussy or Impossible Pussy. It tastes like pussy, but that’s not quite what it is, is it? That’s not blood, that’s beet juice.” 
 . . . In the end, he proclaims that he’s done making jokes about “LBGTQ, LMNOPQXYZ people,” saying “it is over.” “I am not telling another joke about you,” he said, “until we are both sure that we are laughing together.” 

 “All I ask from your community, with all humility, will you please stop punching down on my community?”


I could say a lot of things about this man's ignorance, but I want to focus on one thing because it infuriated me the most. This comment:


 “All I ask from your community, with all humility, will you please stop punching down on my community?”

That is the epitome of all of the bullshit LGBTQ people of color have had to deal with from black heterosexual people - the entitlement mentality. 

That's the belief that whenever there is talk about issues of the black community, problems of the black community, or the survival of the black community, it's all about black heterosexuals. God forbid you point to out that  heterosexuality is not prerequisite of being black. 

No matter how many times it is proven to some heterosexual black people that LGBTQs of color exist, that we have families and children, and should be acknowledge as full members of the black community, they will cling to their fantasies of toxic black masculinity and oversexed black femininity with as much passion as a demented Trump voter still holding on to the lie that he was cheated out of victory in the 2020 election. And there is no room in these fantasies for LGBTQ people of color.

For phony ideas of blackness to survive in the minds of some black heterosexuals, people like me have to be mentally placed in a box where we are pulled out when they want someone to make fun of or even worse, assure themselves of how "tolerant" they are because they have chosen not to knock us upside the head or scream passages of the Bible at us which they themselves do not adhere to. 

The latter is even more insulting. That's when they give us false assurances that they "have no problem with our lifestyle" or our "sexual preferences."  They want us to believe that, but the way they say it always  makes me feel like dogshit on the sidewalk.

When it comes to LGBTQs of color and the black community, some black heterosexuals want to have the first, middle, and last word in the conversation. LGBTQs of color are supposed to be silent. We are supposed allow ourselves to be dictated to and psychologically dissected to fulfill someone's bullshit ideas of what the black people are supposed to be. The implication is that no real black person is LGBTQ so we don't matter.

 If you black heterosexuals have no problem with us, then acknowledge us. Stop with this nonsense about LGBTQ and black people being different. Whether you like it or not, our identities intersect in our daily lives and especially in our history. Does anyone think that it was only heterosexual black people who went through slavery, segregation, lynchings, rapes, and all of the uglies which come with historic systemic racism in America? Where the hell do you think we were when this stuff was happening? On an island somewhere? In outer space?  Do you think we don't feel the pangs of racism now? We do, but it is difficult for us to voice how it especially affects us because some of you heterosexual black folks. are dominating the conversation and won't let us get a word in edgewise. If you would just shut up for a second and let us talk, you would hear how racism does affect LGBTQ people of color in a way it doesn't affect you.

Personally, I am both black and gay. And as such, my life matters, my issues matters, my rage matters, and my need for justice matters. Not as either a black person or a gay person, but as BOTH, together, inseparable. No one has the right to make me choose my identity.

Lastly, let me go back to Mr. Chappelle, because I haven't forgotten about him. 

I would suggest, Mr. Chappelle, that before you start on another one of your stupid routines about LGBTQ people, take your bony ass to the library or  better yet, google some names - Bayard Rustin, Monica Roberts, Barbara Jordan, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Angela Davis, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde. You did not get to the place where you can make millions on stage talking shit solely on the backs of black heterosexuals.  And you need to know that.

Lastly, when you are done with that, go the bank and count your millions. Then google the number of black trans men and women who have been murdered this year and the last. Read each of their names. Compare their lives to yours. 

That way, you will truly understand when someone is punching down.

23 comments:

JoeBuddha said...

TERF. Aka bigot.

Anonymous said...

Just look at it this way: How many people he reached versus how many people you reach.

BlackTsunami said...

Well gee anonymous, I suppose that means we should ignore the ignorance of his words. Why don't we instead look at it in a much better way - not everyone he reaches agrees with his nonsense. And what they hear from me makes them feel that they aren't alone. You seem to think I'm trying to 'cancel' Chappelle. That's not true. I merely am checking him for his nonsense. Silly mess such as 'canceling' people mean nothing to me. It's truth I care about.

Nazifa ISISketeer #1 said...

Saying we were all born from a biological woman is junk? What sort of mental issues must a person have to be triggered by a FACT?

Men who choose to pose as women can't be that stupid. Even your most rabid religious person has a better grip on reality.

Stop the misogyny. Being a woman isn't just putting on a costume.

BlackTsunami said...

Nazifa, you need to take that rabid TERF shit somewhere else. You are an absolutely ridiculous, sad person to attack transgender women. You sound like white supremacists when they whine that acknowledging the beauty and intelligence of another culture somehow takes something away from them. A transgender woman takes NOTHING away from you. Except for in your paranoid and petty mind. Please don't come back on this page with your ignorance and accusations that I said things that I clearly did not say.

AlooPotatoes said...

Thank you, BlackTsunami for speaking your truth and the truth of so many others. Hearing that "joke" from Dave Chappelle hurt two-fold.

Firstly because he acknowledged that violence towards Black people, in his example of DaBaby, seems to get trivialized. The systemic issues leading to this violence are largely ignored, and the pain in that "joke" is real.

Secondly, he puts being Black against being gay. That just sucks so much. Compounding what he just said about violence towards Black people with the erasure of lived experience of LGBTQIA Black lives. He could use this platform to bring attention to the violence that LGBTQIA Black people experience, but instead he decides to be an astonishing disappointment to gay Black people. Also insinuating that gays of intersectionality should have to choose one over the other, to self hate, to either be homophobic or racist towards yourself. He could have instead created space to be accepted for being Black AND gay. It's just so terribly disappointing from somebody who's humor could easily be so much more inspiring.

Anyway, thanks for your article and fuck these hatin' as TERFs

aaaaaa said...

Nice post, well written and passionate. I truly do not understand why so many in the black community are so hateful towards LGBT. It feels like a massive overcompensation for slavery or something. It feels like they need to "take back their masculinity" from being exploited. Is that your read on the situation as well?

BlackTsunami said...

Thank you for your compliment. I think you have in part zoned in on the issue. The mindset of black folks - me included - has been shaped because of how we have been treated in America and slavery only scratches the surface. Certain actions and behaviors were the difference between life and death. We are still dealing with that.

SOA said...

dear lord this piece sucks ass, Dave is not transphobic and was not attacking ALL LGBTQ people at all liar.

BlackTsunami said...

So was it a clone who uttered all of that homophobic and transphobic stuff? Was it a clone who erased black LGBTQ people? Well that certainly clears it all up. ��

SOA said...

no he didn't lying moron.

BlackTsunami said...

Wow! Snappy comeback 😄😄. Your commenting privileges on this blog are revoked SOA. Have a nice life.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for writing this. I'm just listening and learning. Ridiculous how much hate you get on your own blog. Take care.

Anonymous said...

I'm very curious about a few exchanges that I read on here and I want to understand your response. And I will disclose that I am a CIS Black Mature Black Man.

Firstly, is it not a FACT that every Human Being arrives on earth through an individual that has a vagina?

And please, I'm not calling anyone any names nor am I trying to marginalize anyone's experiences. I'm just asking for a foundational understanding to begin a dialogue.

Thank You in advance.

BlackTsunami said...

I have no idea where you're going with this thing about vaginas, but I will say I'm not going on that tangent with you. This situation is about how Chappelle denigrated LGBTQ people and played that ridiculous black vs. gay game which erases the issues and lives of LGBTQ people of color like myself.

TeddyPartridge said...

I stand with you. Thank you for writing this.

Shannon Vanshoon said...

Thank you as well, Alvin, for making this post; dealing with all the idiot fallout from this whole matter on Twitter is getting exhausting, especially after getting outright banned there by another stand-up comedian (Christopher Titus) who's been trying to defend Chappelle as well... which I find endlessly depressing, given that I used to really enjoy him as well, as well as financially support him.

Starting to think that all this is doing a wonderful job of showing just what a bunch of secret assholes a lot of people are... and here's hoping it doesn't end up stirring up further violence against trans people. Also, as I commented on Twitter, 'I'd ask if Chappelle knows what kind of friends he's potentially making with what he did, and continues to defend, but there you go.'

Anonymous said...

I want to start by saying that my knowledge of Chappelle's stand up is minimal, so if I need to have other performances as context, I apologize in advance. My knowledge of Chappelle is predominantly from his Comedy Central show, full of racist stereotypes that somehow managed to propel him into mainstream superstardom. I would not expect him to dive into meaningful dialog that in any way uplifts, supports, or moves forward a community... because he's a comedian. They push envelopes and cross lines for a living. Expecting him to push a narrative of a group of people that he isn't part of, especially when he historically systematically disparaged Black men and women without regard is unrealistic.

I mentioned that I've never watched his stand up at the onset because of that's what it has been known for, protecting and advocating for the marginalized, then I can understand the expectation. I still wouldn't expect it from him, but it could be justified to at least desire it.

Lastly, I understand your issues with the last line he said, as I don't think he made a clear case about being ostracized by the gay community per se. I believe he would have been better served by making that request of the trans community, and then making the ask for himself. I don't think he made an argument for a trans vs. Black debate so that statement was out of place. I don't, however, think he made any statements that should draw the ire of the gay and specifically trans community the way that it has. And unfortunately, in reading your article, I still don't get it.

BlackTsunami said...

Hey anonymous, what you don't seem to get is that Chappelle does attempt to be some type of advocate. He seems to think that he is educating people about the world and black people through his comedy. Unfortunately he is like a lot of black heterosexuals I have encountered in that he attempts to educate people on black folks based on his limited view. He doesn't include LGBTQ people of color.

Jennifer Litton Tidd said...

Do we value women as women only if we can give birth? I gave birth to four. I’m 57 now and can no longer have children. In the 2020 census, less than half of women and girls are in the fertility years from ages 15-44. So my question is, why bring that up as the only metric by which we judge women?

I also couldn’t give birth through the birth canal and had to give birth by having a hole cut into my abdomen. Up to a third of births are via c-section in the US now. So all babies being born vaginally is factually inaccurate. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/10/c-section-rate-high/600172/#

Being a woman though, is far more than our genitals or ability to give birth, or the oraface from which we give birth.

Discussion of if or from where we give birth is dehumanizing and irrelevant. Am I less of a woman because I never gave birth vaginally? Am I less of a woman because I can no longer get pregnant? Or because I had to have IVF to have my last two children? Why does anyone else care about what trans women do? They are literally hurting NOBODY.

But diminishing anyone down to only their genitals hurts us all.

Jennifer Litton Tidd said...

Well under half of women and girls are the age of fertility in the US in the 2020 census. (Ages 15-44) Are women and girls only valued when we are the age of fertility?

Approximately one third of live births in the US now are delivered via c-section, hence not delivered vaginally, so not only was Chapelle’s statement denigrating to women, it was also factually inaccurate. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/10/c-section-rate-high/600172/#

I gave birth four times via c-section. I was not able to give birth vaginally. Does that make me less of a woman? I’m 57 now and can no longer get pregnant, does that make me less of a woman? I had to have my last two children via IVF, not via intercourse. Does that make me less of a woman? Are infertile women less female?

Being a woman is FAR more than being able to conceive or give birth vaginally. Denigrating people by only who they love or their genitals is ignorant and just as ignorant as judging people by their skin color. Trans people aren’t bothering anyone. Leave them alone.

My oldest child identifies as gender queer now, with they/them pronouns. It hasn’t changed them or their humanity in the least. I’m sick to death of the ignorance.

Jennifer Litton Tidd said...

Hey genius, you just made his point about Chapelle being the one punching down. Thanks, take the W.

Jennifer Litton Tidd said...

Exactly. It was total erasure of Black LGBTQ+ people and the greater struggle at that intersection.