Rock’s special keeps us stagnant

Devan Dion Hawes Staff Writer

On Mar. 4, around 10 p.m., Chris Rock’s newest Netflix special Selective Outrage aired on Netflix. My dad and I have been watching and dissecting Rock’s routines together since I was but a tot, so we were both excited to see what he had to say with his return to the stage.

Devan Dion Hawes

We both got comfortable in front of the television, turned to the special, then, Rock opened his routine with the notion of there being a “woke trap” to watch for. That alone left a sour taste in our mouths, and it was made clear what we could expect from the rest of the special — another comedian that feels silenced by the tyrannical bogeyman of cancel culture.

With this becoming a pattern among other established comedians, I began to ask myself why comedians are championing themselves on being “anti-woke” and how that affects public perception of the issues they comment on.

During the Netflix special, Rock spoke critically on the extent people will take to position themselves to be seen as victims. Victimhood, the way it’s talked about in the special, has a negative connotation and is implied to be weak. Rock even dubs it one of America’s most addictive drugs among others.

What I thought was going to be a profound criticism of how people with certain privileges use deceptive language to prop themselves up towards a facade of innocence turned out to be an observation lacking any nuance. He took a similar rough approach when talking about abortion, and relationships with women, relying on generalizations and misogynoir respectively. Topics like these, when talked about so crassly, worsen stigmas around them and negate conversations for substantial change.

Dave Chappelle, another accomplished comic, has also chimed in with his own observations in his 2021 Netflix special, The Closer. Most of his time on stage was spent talking about trans issues, cobbling different conflicting viewpoints in attempt to seem groundbreaking and insightful. His blatantly ignorant statements like how queer movements progress faster than black movements create an “us vs. them” complex that’s, frankly, disheartening.

Chappelle’s failure to understand how different social categorizations often overlap is disappointing at its best and harmful at its worst. It’s especially disappointing when both Chappelle and Rock show that they understand the need for nuance in the same sets as these problematic jokes are cracked. The absence of consideration regarding these topics proves to be troubling for the livelihoods of the communities talked about.

In both these specials, the jokes that did and generally do get the loudest audience applause are made at the expense of its subjects, usually minority groups. These careless remarks are far too often embraced and exacerbated by conservative political pundits who make it their job to seem as “anti-woke” as possible.

The word “woke” has recently been co-opted by conservative circles, being used as a fill-in for descriptors like black, brown, disabled, queer, and/or woman, mocking the initial sentiment behind it. Fox News reporters like Tucker Carlson, and commentators for The Daily Wire like Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh base their entire ideologies on mocking American minority groups for being subjected to systemic issues. They all explicitly say that “woke mobs” protesting for systemic change are threatening American lives and to resort to bearing arms to defend against them. Their collective platforms encourage prejudiced, dehumanizing, and reactionary thought processes that thwart potential progress from being made. Hate crimes like the 2022 Colorado shooting of Club Q and the 2020 murder of Ahmaud Arbery can all easily be traced back to the talking points and ideas promoted by these public figures.

This opinion piece is not a knock to those who enjoy more controversial comedians. Edgy, experimental humor does have a home in the world of comedy. It always has had one. But even good edgy comedy is thoughtful in some capacity, and is regaled through an exaggerated, satirical lens.

The most thought-provoking comedy ridicules systems and their perceived normalcies rather than berating the people subject to said systems. Jokes and remarks on these peoples’ realities can be made without compromising their safety or invalidating lived experiences.

All the figures mentioned above, whether it be directly or indirectly, put forth ideas and notions that lead to acts of oppressive violence against America’s most vulnerable. These tragedies can only occur through prejudices agitated by “anti-woke” public figures. There is no possible way progress can be made when this rhetoric has a place to fester.

Without understanding and empathizing with the experiences of the people we claim to fight alongside, we as people will never truly be able move forward and will remain stagnant.

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