 |
| Dave Chappelle comes across as a bigger idiot in his phony defiant statement about his recent controversial special, |
Guess who wants to be back in the news and I know I am going to get grief from my own for covering it. Some seem to think that if I don't give him any attention, he will go away. Uh uh. That's not how it works. Since I have a platform, albeit more minor than his, I will do my best to speak for the folks who are being bullied by him because they aren't celebrities and thus don't have thousands of people groveling at their feet and feeding on their every word. They are just folks trying to live their daily lives as best as they can.
Dave Chappelle is talking about the controversy he started with his Netflix special. In the special, he attacked the transgender community and erased the lives of black LGBTQ people in order to make his attacks seem justifiable via the tired black people vs. LGBTQ people narrative. He got a lot of people calling him out. Also, probably because he's a celebrity, he has a lot of individuals supporting him. Trans employees of Netflix staged a protest last week to call him and Netflix out.
Chappelle addressed this in a video he put out:
Chappelle remained unapologetic about the special — which was accused of containing transphobic and homophobic remarks and led to a walkout at Netflix — saying: “I said what I said.” “It’s been said in the press that I was invited to speak to the transgender employees of Netflix and I refused. That is not true — if they had invited me I would have accepted it, although I am confused about what we would be speaking about,” Chappelle said in the video. “I said what I said, and boy, I heard what you said. My God, how could I not? You said you want a safe working environment at Netflix. It seems like I’m the only one that can’t go to the office anymore.”
He also claimed that the media has been framing the entire situation wrong
“I want everyone in this audience to know that even though the media frames it that it’s me versus that community, that is not what it is. Do not blame the LBGTQ [sic] community for any of this shit. This has nothing to do with them. It’s about corporate interests and what I can say and what I cannot say,” Chappelle said. “For the record, and I need you to know this, everyone I know from that community has been loving and supporting, so I don’t know what all this nonsense is about.” Chappelle also spoke about his upcoming documentary about his summer 2020 comedy tour, claiming that it has now been excluded from film festivals. “This film that I made was invited to every film festival in the United States and some of those invitations I accepted. When this controversy came out about ‘The Closer,’ they began disinviting me from these film festivals,” Chappelle claimed. “And now, today, not a film company, not a movie studio, not a film festival, nobody will touch this film.. . .Though Chappelle said he was willing to meet with members of the trans community, he jokingly listed off a slew of conditions that would have to be met: “To the transgender community, I am more than willing to give you an audience, but you will not summon me. I am not bending to anybody’s demands. And if you want to meet with me, I’d be more than willing to, but I have some conditions. First of all, you cannot come if you have not watched my special from beginning to end. You must come to a place of my choosing at a time of my choosing, and thirdly, you must admit that Hannah Gadsby is not funny.”
What a goddamn simpering asshole. Seriously, what kind of bullshit is this? He's blaming the media now? It wasn't the media who made ugly comments about trans people. It wasn't the media which designated themselves as 'Team Terf." All of that was him.
And then he has the gall to make it seem like he is being a defiant underdog besieged by a group of bullies? Excuse me? Who the hell called out who? Who began this shit? It certainly wasn't the transgender community.
Then he has the audacity to set conditions as to when and how the transgender community can meet with him for a discussion. Excuse me, but when did Chappelle become a king? I mean I wish I had his audacity to push an argument up against a group of people and then attempt to dictate when and if they get to meet with me to register their anger. But yet even with all of that mess, Chappelle considers himself the canceled one. He still considers himself as a victim. He must be out of his damn mind.
I don't know what's worse about Chappelle's statement - the fact that he comes across as a two-faced tone deaf moron or the fact that as far as I'm concerned, he doesn't even address the main reason why I've been pissed at him. And that has to do with how in his special, he dishonestly made his personal attack on the trans community seem like a racial issue by erasing the existence of LGBTQ people of color. And he does it again with his weak-ass idea of a defiant statement by not having the decency to address us. Even though we haven't gotten much attention for it, us LGBTQ people of color haven't been silent with our displeasure about the controversy.
We take very much offense to being erased yet again by heterosexuals in the black community who either take our lives for granted or act as if we don't exist, even though we are going through the same mess which hobbles them. In the year 2020, 44 trans people were murdered and the majority of them were of color. But Dave Chappelle won't mention these trans people. Apparently to him, black lives only matter when they aren't LGBTQ black lives.
The only reason why some folks support Chappelle is because they are either his friends or sad folks who will eat grass if a celebrity does it first. But to me, Chappelle has disproven any claims that he is a comedic genius or can even adequately work a whoopie cushion. He's turning into a one-note idiot who is coming unglued because maybe some folks are realizing that he was nothing more than hype. Maybe that's why he had that "issue" years ago which caused him to cancel his television show.
Far be it from me to diagnose anyone's 'issues,' but I will say this. Whatever his mind is going through, he has no right to make trans people his scapegoats or erase the existence of LGBTQ people of color.
We aren't your problem, Dave. So stop attempting to be ours.
