Replies

Wow; I could imagine!

The Chappelle show had a skit on reparations (apologies for the length):

With “Wendy Mullen” in front of a liquor store in Queens, we are shown scores of Black people smiling and waving in a line stretching around a corner waiting to have their checks cashed. “Wendy” states that they have been standing in lines for hours. In fact, “Wendy” has clips of earlier interviews from those that already cashed their checks. We transition to a Black woman after cashing her check– indicated by her waving a wad of bills — she states,”Hide the money y’all, there’s poor peopla around. With your broke ass!!!”

In another of these mock interviews, “Wendy” asks a Black man in a Kools cigarette truck played by Donnell Rawlings was he going to quit his truck driving job. Rawlings’s character replies that he just bought that truck cash, and now has enough cigarettes to last him(and his family) a lifetime. As “Wendy” returns back to “Chuck” in the studio, “Chuck” is written to ask “Wendy” why there are no banks in the ghetto. To which “Wendy” responds,”Well, Chuck, that’s because banks hate Black people. But, I think that’s about to change.”

Continuing the skit’s theme of a news broadcast, “Chuck” proceeds to discuss the effect of this new injection of capital on markets. Financial correspondent “Michael Peterson” (a whyte male in a suit in tie with a stock ticker below him and a scene of stock market traders behind him) tells us that “these people are spending money like hot cakes”. He relays that Sprint prices have risen as two million deliquent phone bills had been paid off. Of course, they have “Michael” report that gold and diamond prices are their highest ever. In this world, oil prices have gone down, while chicken prices have shot up to six hundred dollars a bucket. He states that eight thousand record labels had been started in just that hour, and Cadillac had sold three million Escalade trucks that afternoon alone. To sum up that bit, “Michael” states,”these people seem to be breaking their necks just to give this money right back to us.”

A line that they use this “Michal Peterson” character to convey is that “the recession is over and we have no one else to thank but these Black people.”

We return back to Dave’s “Chuck Taylor” who announces a breaking story that the crime rate has fallen. This ends the first skit on this topic. This episode furthers with another monologue and man-on-the-street bit about award winning breasts. Closing this episode, however, we return to this alternate reality as “Chuck” reports that Blacks basketball players stopped playing for the NBA, and Bill Gates has “been overtaken” on Fortune magazine’s wealthiest people listing.

We are then taken to Harlem where “Tron”(also played by Chappelle) is questioned as to how he surpassed Bill Gates on that list. We see “Tron” surrounded by a group of brothers waving wads of dollars next to a baby carriage. “Tron” states that he won this money in a dice game. When asked was that baby in adjancent baby carriage his son, he states,”naw, I just bought this baby cash.” It concludes with a question inquirying his intents with all of his new found money. Dave has “Tron” assert,”[I’m going to] spend this money before you honkies change your minds!!!”

In one last segment, “Chuck” introduces “reliable, friendly, portly, Big Al”. “Big Al” (another performance by Dave Chappelle) stands in front of a weather chart with a gold chain and crown on. He immediately wishes his audience a “Happy Reparations Day, Happy Juneteenth”. Addressing “Chuck” he announces that he has turned in his resignation, hours ago. He then states that the voice he uses is not his real speaking voice, and he begins to talk in a deeper voice.