12/29/04

Real America

This is a snippet from the "60 Minutes" airing tonight where Dave Chappelle was interviewed about his struggle to survive in tv land. This quote is the very reason why television lacks color today. Somehow, there are still people who believe that blacks aren't "the american look", when in actuality (thanks to slavery, rape, and genocide) we're more "American" than most whites.

While he was making movies, he was still creating and pitching TV sitcoms, starring himself, which is when the Fox Network called.

"I flew out there for the meeting. And if you can imagine, I was the only black person in the room, and they basically told me that, we'll pick up the show but we want more white characters on it," recalls Chappelle. "For no other reason than they thought it would give the show a more universal appeal. And so I quit."

He walked out of the room after the meeting, and he accused the network of racism. "It was racist. Look, I don't think these people sit around their house and call black people 'n-----s' and all this kind of thing," says Chappelle. "But the idea that, unless I have white people around me on my show, that it's unwatchable or doesn't have a universal appeal, is racist. You know? They don't make them put black people on 'Friends.' Or they don't make them put black people on 'Seinfeld.' But all of a sudden I get in the room, and it's like, 'Where's all the white people?'"

Thank you Dave for keeping it real.