Tomás Mier
Dave Chappelle appears want people to think after trans people protested his show in Minneapolisthat he really is the victim.
On Tuesday, the comedian – who has been criticized for making transphobic jokes during his stand-up shows – addressed the cancellation of his show in Minneapolis after the venue said it wanted to make its venue a “safe space” for all attendees, regardless of gender expression.
Chapel went on his midnight miracle podcast to react to the backlash he faced, nearly six months after the fact, and used the platform to reduce the marginalization of the trans community and blame them for allegedly inciting violence.
“They wanted me to say something inflammatory,” Chappelle claimed, saying protesters threw eggs at those queuing to watch his show. (A single video of a protesting with eggs in his hand circulated the internet.) “In some strange way, they intended to incite violence against themselves for publicity.”
Instead of directly attacking the root of the problem – his hateful jokes against a community of which he is not a part – Chappelle chose to degrade trans people and categorize the protesters as people who simply wanted to “fuck up his show”. . His response invalidated that his transphobic jokes provoke violence in a larger sense and allow expressions of anti-transit like his to continue without consequence.
“The trans [people] and their surrogates, always say that my jokes are somehow going to cause impending violence that they say is inevitable for my jokes,” Chappelle said. “But I have to tell you, as abrasive as they were, the way they were protesting, throwing eggs at people, throwing barricades, swearing and shouting, [none of my fans] beat them.
Seems like a low bar for mistaking unbeaten as proof of being trans-friendly. Moreover, it is not his fans who are arrested for transphobia. And, just because it didn’t happen at his show, doesn’t mean it won’t happen elsewhere.
Chappelle also later claimed that he asked the protesters, “Where are the black trans people? And these guys were like, ‘They were right there.’ No, they weren’t. We don’t have a breakdown of the demographics of the protesters at his Minneapolis show, but what is known is that blacks and Latinos account for the highest number of deaths in the trans community each year, according to the human rights campaign. Black trans women, in particular, are most at risk of violence and have been for years. With this take on the oppressive Olympics, Chappelle downplays the experiences of black trans people and assumes that their identities are mutually exclusive.
“There’s one thing they do where they deliberately obscure what I think they believe is the intent of my work to make it a moment that I don’t know the work necessarily deserves,” he said. he declares. “You know what I mean?” It is unclear how trans people can “deliberately obscure” the fact that in their The closest stand-up ensemble, Chappelle literally called themselves “Team TERF,” or trans-exclusive feminist, compared trans people’s genitals to plant-based substitutes, and seems to be obsessed with jokes about trans women’s private parts.
Chappelle even had the chance to save himself at one point during the podcast. A co-host tried to imply that Chappelle was “pro-everything” when it came to trans rights and that his performances were separate from his personal beliefs. Chappelle cut him off. “Slow down your rolling,” he said.
One thing Chappelle admitted is that he got into his feelings after the show was canceled. “I was pissed. I wasn’t mad that they canceled the show,” he said. “I was mad at the statement they released… Are you sorry? What’s to be sorry about is the stance I’ve taken…I’m not even mad that they’re challenging my work. Good. Who cares? What I’m challenging, it’s the idea that because they don’t like it, I don’t have the right to say it.
“Trying to silence a person like me, I don’t think that has anything to do with being liked,” he said. “They want to be feared. “If you say that, we will punish you. We’ll come to First Avenue and fuck your show and we’ll come to the Varsity Theater and fuck your show. And they just can’t do that.
Chappelle has one of the biggest platforms as a top comedian. Let’s be real here: no one is going to stop him from making his outdated jokes. His mentality that people are trying to “silence” him is flawed. All trans people and their allies seem to be asking for is that he stop weaponizing already marginalized identities which are not his make old-fashioned jokes about genitals.