Revolution Televised.pdf

180 Conclusion
under the constant surveillance of white America. This was especially
relevant in the midst of the Civil Rights and Black Power
movements, because any rift evident in the black community was
seen as a possible means of divide and conquer. Martin Luther
King Jr. versus Malcolm X, one of the most discussed divisions in
African American political history, was used to symbolize an opposition
between the moderates and the so-called radicals, a split that
some argued undermined a unified black political force.
As discussed, the prospect of a discrete political and social black
community becomes less plausible in the era of legal desegregation
and within the increasingly media-saturated U.S. society. Yet,
this philosophy remains prevalent in the discourse of contemporary
blackness, the notion that there are things better left behind
closed doors. Along with the direct political ramifications, the notions
of uplift and Du Boisian double consciousness run rampant
throughout this ideal. How is the “black community” perceived
by the white public when conversations usually maintained within
the black communal spaces become the grist for national public
entertainment?
In recent television history, one clear example of this debate occurred
with the release of Chris Rock’s HBO special Bring the Pain.
It was one of the most significant moments in black popular culture
of the late 1990s to test the bounds of Malcolm X’s philosophy.
The sentiments expressed in the monologue transcribed in this section’s
opening epigraph were debated among both black and white
Americans. Should it have been part of the U.S. dialogue on race
or kept within African American conversations? Questions of this
nature again surfaced with The Chris Rock Show and his second
HBO effort, Bigger and Blacker. Chris Rock’s comedy hit a nerve,
and the reverberations are still evident throughout both black and
white society in this country.
Bring the Pain, shot at Washington DC’s Takoma Theater, and
Bigger and Blacker, shot at the Apollo in New York, place his
comedy within spaces marked as centers of African American existence.
Washington DC has one of the largest black populations in the
country, and the Apollo, as previously mentioned, has historical linkages
to black cultural and social life in Harlem. In Bring the Pain,
Rock situates his humor within the trajectory of black performance
and African American comedy. As the announcer introduces Rock,
the camera focuses on his feet while he walks toward the stage.