Revolution Televised.pdf

Conclusion 185
By following up on Rock’s race-based joke, Connerly plays into
the myth of Asian Americans as the model minority. The myth is
based on claims that Asian Americans have had an easier time assimilating
into American society, suggesting that Asians are more
hardworking and therefore more successful than other minority
groups. This has created resentment between Asians and other minority
groups, although Asians are still impacted by many forms of
discrimination. 28 Connerly problematically implies that the poverty
within other racial and ethnic groups is a result of their lack of a
work ethic.
Rock appears to try to understand how Connerly could have
“dedicated [his] life to making sure the white man has a fair shake.”
But the way in which he leads Connerly into the following series of
questions suggests that he may already know their answers. He
asks Connerly his age (fifty-nine at the time of the interview), then
continues:
rock: I’ve never met an old black man who didn’t hate white
people, ’cause old black men went through real racism. Young
black men talk about not getting a cab; the black man was the
cab. A white man jumped on his back and said, “Take me to
Main Street.”
connerly: An old black man ought to know that race is not an
appropriate factor to be discriminating against somebody for.
rock: What were you doing when black people were getting hosed
down, beat up, dogs sicced on them? Where were you at? What
was going on in your life?
connerly: I was in California getting discriminated against in getting
apartments [emphasis added].
rock: Yeah?
Rock sets Connerly up to reveal his lack of first-hand experience
with overt racism. Thus, in the audience’s eyes, the call to end affirmative
action is voiced by a man who has not had to face more
visceral types of discrimination. Connerly is a product of an affirmative
action education system, yet he is unable to connect with
the hardships African Americans still face in this contemporary and
racially divisive society. Rock definitely wins the debate, and in his
final diatribe he is able to use humor to expose the lack of depth of
Connerly’s argument. In this and many other interviews, Rock used