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English 101

November 13, 2018

Race Relations Highlighted by Dave

During the early 2000’s race relations in the United States were an issue that no one had

really talked about or were making nationwide efforts to fix. Major events such as 9/11 occurred

that would pit the majority against the minority with little to any repercussion. Minorities would

be associated with stereotypes, derogatory slang, and unsaid segregation with no real way to shed

light to enact change. This was until the Dave Chappelle Show came around. The Dave

Chappelle show was a comedy skit show that ran from 2003-2006 that would touch on sensitive,

and sometimes offensive subjects that no one else would. This series of shows would highlight

the stereotypes that the country had associated with minorities, primarily African Americans,

along with other social issues pertaining to race. Skits from this period still pertain to present day

and stay relevant. Minorities since the early 2000’s have started multiple movements to end

stereotypes, unsaid segregation, mistreatment of minorities, and to integrate minorities into

positions of leadership and power. The spark that was The Dave Chappelle Show got people

thinking about perspective and the effect it had minorities and their integration into society.

Being a minority is tough as is, but when the majority belittles the minority but through

oppression such as systematic racism, the mental and emotional mentality of minority changes

and can be degraded. The Dave Chappelle Show enabled the nation to better understand race

relations through the eyes of the oppressed by using comedy to show the effects of
discrimination and stereotypes. , and the perspective of minorities through the use of highly

offensive skits and comedy.

One of the most well-known and influential pieces from this skit show depicts what

African American people would do if they were to receive reparations for all the wrong doings

the United States has done to them. With the history of mistreatment and oppression of African

Americans in the United States, Dave integrates the assumed perspective of the majority along

with common stereotypes of African Americans. African Americans are shown has “gangster’s”

throughout the skit now that they have received their reparation checks. With this skit coming

from the perspective of a news forecast, the African American weather man states,” And I will

tell you something else you probably didn’t know. This isn’t my real speaking voice. This is. I

talk like a straight up gangsta, bitch.” He changes from a monotone high-pitched voice with good

grammar using formal language to a low-pitched voice with poor grammar and a lot of slang.

This stereotyping of African Americans talking a certain way was deliberately annunciated in the

skit to show how absurd these stereotypes are. He overexaggerates the voices used to show how

incorrect the perceived stereotypes actually are. to the nation what African Americans think of

the stereotyping done in America. He later refers to the black news caster as “pasty”, a common

term used to describe a white person, to show that stereotyping can go both ways even though

the majority might not realize it. It is used in a way for the majority to realize how being called

pasty makes them feel and cause them to think about generalizations they make. Another thing

that helps enhance this critical thinking is the crudeness of the joke. A joke is established when

the punchline is made, and Chappelle has When someone hears something that is crude, it grabs

their attention. This is something that Dave Chappelle does not hold back with.
 With the United States being a mix of numerous cultures, races, genders, and other

unique characteristics, cultural appropriation can be sometimes viewed as offensive. One thing

that brings a minority close together is a shared characteristic. When this characteristic is taken

by the majority and used as their own, the minority loses a sense of uniqueness and singularity.

While cultural appropriation can take numerous forms big and small, not everyone sees it as a

big deal. Some can view it as a form of respect for a culture or in a way in which the

appropriated group is viewed in an influential way. With the technological takeoff and the ever-

increasing presence of social media, this has become a common day thing that has been seen

more and more often. spiraling out of control. Towards the beginning of this technological era,

Dave Chappelle released a skit entitled “The Racial Draft” in 2004 in which different groups of

people would draft a famous person and adopt them into your group in an NFL draft fashion. The

blacks drafted first, and they selected Tiger Woods. The announcers say,” His father black. His

mother Thai. Well it doesn’t matter anymore because he is officially black.” While this may not

seem like a big deal, this is stripping Tiger of his unique individual characteristics and

associating him with the larger group. While this is only a situation that effects tiger woods,

society has grouped many people without considering their ethnic and cultural backgrounds. An

example of this would be calling any person with dark skin black without considering where they

have come. As this relates to America, stripping the minority of their individualistic

characteristics and associating it with the majorities own can create a sense of a lost identity. It

diminishes the morality of the minority as they feel lesser of themselves as a group and person.

The intestinal harshness of this might come off as racist, but the underlying point is that the

majority strips the identity of the minority without realizing the effect it has on them. A study

from the University of Michigan College of Health and Behavior did a study on young African
Americans and how their racial identity effects their physiological health, and they found,

“Racial identity has been linked to the psychological health and well-being of African

Americans. Although evidence bearing on the nature of the relationship between racial identity

and psychological functioning in African Americans remains equivocal, recent

conceptualizations and empirical investigations have begun to more effectively examine this

relationship.” This means that African Americans are affected by their racial identity and that if

someone was to question, appropriate, or state they are something other than their race, their

mental health is put at risk. If the idea of cultural appropriation in America did not affect Dave

Chappelle, he would have never put this skit out there. For a minority to put a skit out with the

potential to jeopardize his career like this means that he has personally been affected by people

attempting to alter or steal his racial identity. While this is one interpretation of his work, it could

also be viewed in a way that highlights the best values in each group. Each group is excited with

each new added member even though they are not exactly their own. It could be perceived that

Chappelle is trying to show how we can all be integrated amongst one another while still being

accepted by your group. With the amount of ways this skit could be perceived, the skit itself had

mixed reviews but had people conversating about it. With this bold skit, the nation’s attention

was caught as the underlying message was perceived to an extent. Cultural appropriation was an

issue back then and still is today, but a step forward was taken when the message was delivered

to those engulfed in Dave’s comedic masterpiece. My brain hurts at this point and I would like to

declare I am dropping out of school.’

Dave Chappelle’s goals for these skits were to enable the nation to better understand race

relations through the eyes of the oppressed by using comedy to show the effects of

discrimination and stereotypes. He used techniques such as overexaggerating and explicit

comedy to get these messages across. There are intertwined themes such as the oppression of

African Americans through most his work. He shows these themes in a variety of ways which

are then perceived differently by each audience member. Chappelle’s work can be viewed in

many different ways but ultimately comes down to the interpretation of the reader. He leaves a

lot of his work up for interpretation which can be risky in the sense of backlash but also affective

in the sense he gets the message he wants out.