Ann weighs in on NETFLIX

Ann weighs in on NETFLIX:

Dahlia McCamon's voice is valid and deserves to be heard and widely platformed

Dave Chappelle is a great comic. I don't think anyone disputes that. He's incredibly talented. I also will say that I don't consider him a bad person. But the way he has used his comedy against minorities in the past does trouble me. Marcia's written about the latest special in "Dave Chappelle" and "Dave Chappelle fall out" and Betty has in "Where is the humor these days?" I think Marcia nailed it about the wording and about how you have to sit there and think it through to get that it's not necessarily an insult when he says whatever. But, like Marcia says, he's a communicator so we really shouldn't have to do that.

On All Things Considered (NPR), Sarah Belle spoke with comedian Dahlia McCammon about this:

 
BELLE: The entire special is built around this rhetorical argument that his seemingly transphobic jokes are not about women and they're not about queers or trans people, who he frequently refers to by derogatory terms. His issue is with white people because as long as he says that any critique someone makes of him is an example of anti-Blackness, then in his imagination, he's untouchable.

MCCAMMON: You know, Chappelle says he's been accused by trans people of, quote, unquote, "punching down" on them, and he ends the special by pleading with others not to punch down on what he calls his people. I wonder how you hear that call.

BELLE: I hear that call as a complete erasure of my existence, which - as a Black trans woman, it's truly painful because our existence is already ignored.

MCCAMMON: Some of Chappelle's jokes seem predicated on the idea that gay people are making progress in America faster than Black people, and therefore it's acceptable to make jokes at the expense of LGBTQ people. I wonder how you think about that.

BELLE: I think that's a very fascinating theory. In Portland, I see plenty of Black Lives Matter signs. I see plenty of murals of Black men who have been murdered by police - not one poster, not one mention of any of the numerous Black trans women who have been assaulted, shot, stabbed, literally set on fire. So I am curious as to how, quote, unquote, "our movement" - so the broader LGBTQ efforts for liberation, legal protection - I'm not sure of how we've advanced beyond the rights of my other community, Black people. And especially since if I, as a Black trans woman - I am facing oppression due to being a woman, I face oppression due to being Black, I face oppression due to being trans, I face oppression due to being queer, what benefit am I receiving for any of that?

Dahlia McCamon offers some important words that we all need to hear. I also think we all need to see. What I mean by that is, we aren't a censorship community in THE COMMON ILLS. We believe in more voices, not less voices. Netflix needs to give Dahlia McCamon a special. Not only that, they should actually do a conversation special -- roundtable would be great -- about Dave Chappelle's show.

I think the conversation is needed for all of us but especially for Dave who does not appear to grasp why people are responding to his comments the way they are.

 

This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"