Dave Chappelle and Selective Outrage

Post Reply New Topic

I am clueless about this Dave Chappelle guy. Apparently totally escaping my notice until now the man has been a big deal for over 20 years. Big deal as in being described as the most popular comedian in America and a winner of many awards. So I do lack context.

Now to the controversies surrounding his current Netflix special ‘The Closer’. Prior to ‘The Closer’ his jokes about Transgender people had already garnered some controversy. According to ‘The Guardian’
” Chappelle declared himself a trans-exclusionary radical feminist (Terf) alongside Rowling. “They canceled JK Rowling – my God. Effectually she said gender was fact, the trans community got mad as s**t, they started calling her a Terf … I’m team Terf,” the comedian said in the special, which is one of the most watched pieces of content on the streaming site.

“Gender is a fact. Every human being in this room, every human being on Earth, had to pass through the legs of a woman to be on Earth. This is a fact,” Chappelle added before saying that “trans women’s” genitalia are “not quite what it is”..

As would be expected this resulted in calls for cancellation with Netflix employees feeling quite offended. Then the unexpected happened the CEO of Netflix said he is not going to pull the show. In reaction Netflix employees staged a very widely publicized walkout.

“There was another “problematic” bit in that special. According to The Times of Israel while Chapelle said watching UFO videos gave him an idea for a movie
“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,” he says. “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.'”

It is an obvious allegories to the diaspora, Israel, and Zionism. But unlike Congresswomen Omar there is no I am talking about Israel not Jews explanation. If you think these are offensive remarks or they are jokes only offensive to snowflakes is up to your subjectivity. As I said at beginning I lack context to make definitive judgements.

To say that the Jewish “jokes” have been ignored is wrong. But commentary about the Jewish remarks has been far less then for the Trans ones. Why is that? IMHO “Oppression Olympics” a specific woke version of Intersectionality. In short in this world view Jews in general are “white adjacent” and thus are the beneficiaries of white privilege. Israel in particular are white people oppressing people of color, The Palestinians. OTOH transgendered people are at the top of the list of the oppressed. Thus bigoted remarks against trans people deserve way more time and attention then bigoted remarks against Jews.

That said why has the Jews themselves been relatively silent?
1. Lack of publicity they have not heard about it.
2. Progressive mostly younger anti Zionist Jews agree with narrative even if they found the particular remarks problematic.
2A Because of priorities mentioned before as soon as they heard the Trans remarks it caused such a reaction they just forgot about Space Jews
3. Conservative pro zionist Jews were offended but their anti woke/cancel culture ideology precluded them from being hypocrites(or being publicly seen as one).

Sourcing
‘I’m team Terf’: Dave Chappelle under fire over pro-JK Rowling trans stance

Dave Chappelle jokes about world-conquering ‘Space Jews’

Dave Chappelle - Wikipedia

Edgy comedians are going to make edgy jokes that are going to upset some people. That's what they. Humor can often be a great catalyst to useful dialog on a number of controversial issues.

Coming after comedians with virtual torches and pitchforks achieves nothing but ensuring this cultural and linguistic authoritarianism will only get worse. It's not healthy for an open, free society in any way.