The Closure

 

By Dave Chappelle

Distributed by Netflix

A review by Steve Halpern

Dave Chappelle’s recent comedy performance has stirred up a bit of controversy. When I viewed this show recently, I can understand why. 

In this show, Chappelle, who is no fan of modesty, labelled himself as the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time). Clearly Chappelle has comedic skills that has endeared him to a large audience. However, I would not call him the GOAT.

Hopefully one day someone will write a history of comedy in this country. That history would, no doubt, include the names of Richard Pryor, Redd Fox, George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, Dick Gregory, and let us not forget Moms Mabley. Personally, I’m not going to rank Chappelle above those performers.

The Closure

However, in his performance titled The Closure, there were several instances that I didn’t feel were funny. What was the theme of this performance? At the end of this show, Chappelle argued that he doesn’t want the LBGT community to “punch down” on the Black community. 

Clearly, I will not deny that among people who identify as LBGT, there are some who have racist attitudes. Clearly, Chappelle would be justified in calling out instances of discrimination in this community. However, allow me to look at the parts of Chappelle’s The Closure to see if he is making a legitimate argument.

In one skit in this performance, Chappelle talked about confronting a table of people who were gay who were filming him without his consent. Clearly Chappelle had a right to object to this. Then, Chappelle argued that someone at this table called the police. He then argued that Black people wouldn’t have called the police because of an argument.

I do not deny that Chappelle had this experience. However, when we think about LBGT people calling the police, we might also consider this information.

Over the past few years, I’ve attended political meetings where LBGT people talked about the issues they face. In those meetings there was a consensus that LBGT people never call the police. There are clear reasons for this attitude.

The police have a long history of raiding gay bars and taking people into custody merely because of their sexual preference. There is an international trend of murders of people who are LBGT. In the year 2013, 20% of the hate crime murders were of people who were LBGT. Hillary Swank won an Oscar for her role as a transsexual who was murdered in the film Boys Don’t Cry. 

As we might imagine, the police are usually, at best, indifferent to these murders. So, when Dave Chappelle criticizes LBGT people for calling the police, he should be aware of the fact that most LBGT people have excellent reasons for never calling the police. 

Then, Chappelle spoke about another incident involving a transsexual. He argued that this person attempted to assault him. Then, Chappelle boasted that he proceeded to beat this person up. Clearly Chappelle had every right to defend himself when he was assaulted. However, why did he boast about beating up a transsexual who became a woman? If this had happened to me, I would have considered myself lucky that this person didn’t pull out a gun and kill me. 

Allow me to ask a question. Suppose it was a Black man who attempted to assault a transsexual. Then the transsexual beat up the Black man. Do we think that boasting about beating up a Black man would be funny? I don’t think so. 

Empathy and solidarity

Then, Chappelle argued that Mohammed Ali endured more criticism for changing his name than the criticism of Caitlyn Jenner when she changed her sex. This statement by Chappelle gets to the heart of the problem with his performance. 

There are many oppressed people in the world. In this country, we are not only talking about LBGT and Black people. We are also talking about Native Americans, Latinos, immigrants, and women. Do we want to have a ranking system where we rank people as to who has experienced the worse discrimination? Or do we want to struggle against all forms of discrimination?

Bob Marley was one of my favorite performers. However, Dick Gregory was absolutely right when he spoke to Marley and was critical of his song “Buffalo Soldiers.” Those Buffalo Soldiers were used by the United States government to participate in the genocidal warfare against Native Americans. 

Clearly Marley believed that the Buffalo Soldiers were courageous fighters. In reality, their actions only served the the powerful interests in this country. We can also say that while Colin Powell and Barack Obama achieved many of their personal goals, their politics represented a disaster for working people around the world.  

In his performance in The Closure, Chappelle claims he has “empathy” for people who are LBGT. The definition of empathy is: The ability to understand and share the feelings of another. 

Then, there is the definition of the word solidarity: Unity or agreement of feeling or action, especially among individuals with a common interest.

So, what is my problem with Dave Chappelle’s performance The Closure? Chappelle feels that it is all right to ridicule the lives of LBGT people because there are some LBGT people who have racist attitudes. Well, there are some Black people who have sexist attitudes. That didn’t stop millions of women, from all over the world, from protesting the murder of George Floyd. 

I am in solidarity with all people who experience discrimination. I expect nothing in return for those expressions of solidarity. The only real strength of the working class is our ability to come together demanding that an injury to one is an injury to all. This requires an ongoing struggle against all forms of discrimination.

I noticed that in the audience of Dave Chappelle’s performance there were two white women who clearly liked most of his comedy. However, while most people laughed at most of Chappelle’s jokes, it became clear that those two women didn’t find many of his jokes funny.

Clearly, a comedian’s job is not to make everyone laugh. If I were a comedian, I would make it a routine practice to make billionaires and their supporters uncomfortable. However, my opinion is that Dave Chappelle will become a much better comedian when he makes those two women laugh at his jokes.