Critics call to cancel Chappelle special
Cancel culture is threatening to shut down Dave Chappelle’s “The Closer.”
The always outspoken stand-up comic is pushing the public’s buttons again — and a swelling wave of culture critics and activist organizations are calling for his brand-new Netflix special to be yanked from the streaming giant’s catalog.
The special — the sixth and final in the Emmy winner’s big-bucks deal with Netflix — premiered Tuesday and immediately stoked controversy.
Chappelle, 48, appears to defend the homophobic comments DaBaby made over the summer, comparing the rapper’s rant to systemic racism. “In our country, you can shoot and kill a [N-word] — but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings,” Chappelle says onstage, referencing a 2018 shooting incident involving the rapper at a Walmart in North Carolina. The victim later died.
He also jocularly defends author J.K. Rowling, who has said she doesn’t see trans women as women. Chappelle declares that he’s joining her in “Team TERF!” — the acronym for transexclusionary radical feminist.
Perhaps the most shocking reaction to the special came from one of Netflix’s own: Jaclyn Moore, showrunner of its “Dear White People.”
Moore bluntly declared herself “done” with Netflix. “I love so many of the people I’ve worked with at Netflix,” she wrote on Twitter after detailing her own transition in a passionate post. “Brilliant people and executives who have been collaborative and fought for important art. [But] I will not work with them as long as they continue to put out and profit from blatantly and dangerously transphobic content.”
Meanwhile, the National Black Justice Coalition, an advocacy group focused on rights for LGBTQ black people, has prodded Netflix to take “The Closer” off its menu. “With 2021 on track to be the deadliest year for transgender people in the United States — the majority of whom are black transgender people — Netflix should know better,” NBJC executive director David Johns said in a statement to Deadline.
Reps for Chappelle and Netflix have so far declined to comment on the negative buzz, but the comic did say in the special that he harbors no “hate” for queer people.
“Oh, I’m jealous. I’m not the only black person that feels this way. We look at the gay community, we go, ‘Goddamn it — look at how well that movement is going!’ . . . And we’ve been trapped in this predicament for hundreds of years. How the f - - k are you making that kind of progress?” However, Chappelle goes on to claim there’s a big difference between the
“old-school gangsta gays” who fought for change during the Stonewall era.
“I’m not that fond of these newer gays. Too sensitive. Too brittle. Those aren’t the gays I grew up with . . . They fought for their freedom. I
respect that s - - t.”