It’s pretty hard to be a closet black. Although it does remind me of a Saturday Night Live sketch with Eddie Murphy.
Mother: Did you just say something, or was that Soul Train?
stolen from somewhere--can't remember where.
Try Steve Martin: "I was born a pooooor black child!"
Thank God his foster-daddy made out okay in leveraged no-load mutual funds!
The result of Richard Pryor’s comedic success has been to condition white people. Since the vast majority of the discussion about racism in America is fed to us through comedy routines, we’ve become accustomed to laughing when a black man stands up and shouts “I hate crackas!” Whole theatres full of people jumped to their feet and applauded when Chris Rock said virtually the same things as the lunatic New Black Panthers shouting through a bullhorn. Dave Chapelle snapped off a couple of cracka jokes and those jokes made him the most important person on Comedy Central, along with making him several million dollars.
White people don’t view racially charged explosions from angry black men as threatening anymore. We see it as entertainment. But how are we supposed to seriously address racial issues when we’re conditioned to laugh at them, and the people who discuss them? How are we supposed to pick the real angry, dangerous individuals out of the large crowds of black comedians saying the same things because they’re trying to make a buck?