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Netflix released a clip from Dave Chappelle’s upcoming standup special Equanimity on Wednesday, and it looks like it’s going to be a blast. The joke in the clip seems to be one Chappelle was working on at his Radio City Music Hall residency in August about meeting his poor white Ohio neighbors while waiting in line to vote in the presidential election. (Chappelle now lives in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where he’s been a model of civic engagement, even showing up to speak at a town council meeting.) His first attempt at engaging with the Trump era, shortly before the election, was an unmitigated disaster—Chappelle thought Trump got a raw deal with the Access Hollywood tape—so it’s good to see he’s showing a more nuanced view here about American politics. Here’s his bit about poor white people shooting themselves in the foot from the clip:
Now, I’m gonna just tell you, I’ve never had a problem with white people ever in my life. But full disclosure: the poor whites are my least favorites. We’ve got a lot of trouble out of them! And I’d never seen so many of them up close. I looked them right in their coal-smeared faces. And to my surprise, you know what I didn’t see? I didn’t see one deplorable face in that group. I saw some angry faces and some determined faces, but they felt like decent folk.
No, they did. In fact, I’m not even lying—it sounds f*cked up—but I felt sorry for them. I know the game there. I know that rich white people call poor white people trash. And the only reason I know that is because I made so much money last year, the rich whites told me they say it at a cocktail party. And I’m not with that shit!
And I stood with them in line, like all of us Americans are required to do in a democracy—nobody skips the line to vote—and I listened to them. I listened to them say naïve poor white people things. “Man, Donald Trump’s gonna go to Warshington, and he’s gonna fight for us.” I’m standing there thinking in my mind, “You dumb motherf*cker. You. Are. Poor. He’s fighting for me.”
Chappelle gets from “decent folk” to “dumb motherf*ckers” pretty quickly there—although those things aren’t necessarily contradictory!—and it’s both generous and perceptive of him to view his Trump-supporting neighbors as the victims of a con, rather than angry white supremacists. It’ll be interesting to see how much his routine addresses the way white supremacy played into the equation—Yellow Springs is only a half-hour from Huber Heights, home of the New York Times’ lovable Nazi—but this is definitely sharper than his earlier Trump material. We’ll find out more when the special is released on New Year’s Eve.
Source: https://slate.com/arts/2017/12/watch-a-clip-from-dave-chappelles-upcoming-netflix-special.html
Now, I’m gonna just tell you, I’ve never had a problem with white people ever in my life. But full disclosure: the poor whites are my least favorites. We’ve got a lot of trouble out of them! And I’d never seen so many of them up close. I looked them right in their coal-smeared faces. And to my surprise, you know what I didn’t see? I didn’t see one deplorable face in that group. I saw some angry faces and some determined faces, but they felt like decent folk.
No, they did. In fact, I’m not even lying—it sounds f*cked up—but I felt sorry for them. I know the game there. I know that rich white people call poor white people trash. And the only reason I know that is because I made so much money last year, the rich whites told me they say it at a cocktail party. And I’m not with that shit!
And I stood with them in line, like all of us Americans are required to do in a democracy—nobody skips the line to vote—and I listened to them. I listened to them say naïve poor white people things. “Man, Donald Trump’s gonna go to Warshington, and he’s gonna fight for us.” I’m standing there thinking in my mind, “You dumb motherf*cker. You. Are. Poor. He’s fighting for me.”
Chappelle gets from “decent folk” to “dumb motherf*ckers” pretty quickly there—although those things aren’t necessarily contradictory!—and it’s both generous and perceptive of him to view his Trump-supporting neighbors as the victims of a con, rather than angry white supremacists. It’ll be interesting to see how much his routine addresses the way white supremacy played into the equation—Yellow Springs is only a half-hour from Huber Heights, home of the New York Times’ lovable Nazi—but this is definitely sharper than his earlier Trump material. We’ll find out more when the special is released on New Year’s Eve.
Source: https://slate.com/arts/2017/12/watch-a-clip-from-dave-chappelles-upcoming-netflix-special.html