James Finn
1 min readNov 3, 2021

--

This is the critical point, I think. Chappelle and his supporters would say something like, Of course, and they're strung together to criticize the racism of the LGBTQ community and the racism of society at large as they leap accept queer people but drag their heels over Black people.

The trouble is, Chappelle just lumped everyone and everything together, presuming queer communities are cohesive and can be criticized as a whole. He lumps relatively privileged gay white men (who absolutely can be as racist as any other white men) in with Caitlyn Jenner without seeming to have any awareness that Jenner is barely tolerated in queer circles, because of her conservative values and support for racist institutions and people, including the current Republican Party and Donald Trump.

In fact, Chappelle doesn't just lazily lump everyone together, he seems not to have done his homework at all. His jokes make clear he barely understands trans issues and challenges. During the 18 or so minutes he focuses on trans people, he sounds like somebody's embarrassing queer-phobic uncle at the Thanksgiving table rather than the cutting social commentator the nation first came to love.

No wonder pushback has ensued. People don't want him creating culture with his ill informed ideas. He's done harm by not doing his homework.

--

--

James Finn
James Finn

Written by James Finn

James Finn is an LGBTQ columnist, a former Air Force intelligence analyst, an alumnus of Act Up NY, and an agented but unpublished novelist.

Responses (1)