By: Daniel Klein – journalist/contributorPosted: May 7, 2022 8:00 AM
In a Dave Chappelle’s comedy routine titled, “8:46” (the amount of time that Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck), Chappelle rightly rails against police brutality. During his routine Chappelle’s demands to know from officers “Just who are you talking to?” Complaining about the officers who stood around Floyd with their hands in their pockets. You can watch it here 8:46 – Dave Chappelle – YouTube
Fast forward to May 4, 2022, and Chappelle’s comedy routine at the Hollywood Bowl. He is attacked by a man armed with what looks like a gun (it turns out to be fake) but the gun has a knife concealed in it. After the initial attack, Chappelle takes several steps backward while Jamie Foxx and Chappelle’ssecurity detail (around 10 people), beat the man into submission. In video you can see different people stomping on this guy while he is on the ground.
Chappelle himself gets back into the fray and later states, “Nigga, I’ve been doing this 35 years. I just stomped a nigga backstage. Always wanted to do that.” And the audience all laughed.
Chappelle’s assailant left the scene in police custody, on a stretcher. He had many abrasions and possibly a broken arm. The Los Angeles District Attorney later dropped the felony charges and reduced them to misdemeanors.
Now if this would have been, let’s say, a white police officer being attacked by the same black man, I wonder what Chappelle would say? How would Chappelle react to 10 white officers stomping on this guy while he was on the ground and already subdued? How would Chappelle react if the white officer said he had been wanting to stomp on a black man? Would any of us laugh? I think we all know what Chappelle would say, because he already said it regarding George Floyd.
It’s a double standard. Chappelle and his people can kick the crap out of a black guy who is already subdued, and we all laugh about it. Let it be a police officer (of any color) and that same group would be outraged! Instead of posting videos of the event on Twitter and laughing, Chappelle and others would be posting the videos demanding that “black lives matter” and “police brutality”. This is America, where black lives matter only when it comes to police officers. Black lives don’t matter, and we can laugh about it, when it comes to being beaten by other black men.
Just like using the word “nigga”, in Chappelle’s world it’s ok for another black man to say it, but holy crap the world is going to end if any one of another races use that word. Chappelle has no issues when it comes to him and his security detail kicking and stomping the crap out of a guy who is already subdued, but he will point a crooked finger and lecture police officers when they do the same thing.
It’s hypocrisy and it’s sick. Police officers should never be allowed to beat a defenseless person, but neither should Chappelle and his security detail.
You can watch the videos here Dave Chappelle ‘Stomps’ Man After Being Attacked Onstage | HipHopDX
Our society demands that everyone of us plays by the same rules. There cannot, should not, be different rules for different races when it comes to brutality and racism.
So I ask Dave Chappelle, “Who are you talking to?”