Revolution Televised.pdf

192 Conclusion
Shut the fuck up! White people ain’t losing shit. If y’all losing, who’s
winning? It ain’t us. Have you driven around this motherfucker? Shit,
there ain’t a white man in this room that would change places with
me—and I’m rich! That’s how good it is to be white. There is a white
one-legged busboy in here right now that won’t change places with
my black ass. He’s going, “No, man, I don’t want to switch. I want to
ride this white thing out. See where it takes me.”
While quick to note the problems inherent in U.S. society at the
turn of the millennium, Rock insists that black people need to
know where to draw the line when critiquing mainstream society.
He explains this with an anecdote based on the reaction to the
deaths of two significant hip-hop figures.
I’m watching the news: Tupac Shakur was assassinated. Biggie Smalls
was assassinated. Struck down by assassins bullets. No they wasn’t.
Martin Luther King was assassinated. Malcolm X was assassinated.
John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Them two niggas got shot.
Again, when Rock focuses his observations on black society, the
public forum becomes an issue for a television audience. The live
and primarily black audience at the Apollo can have a different engagement
with the comedian. As on The Chris Rock Show, they use
call-and-response to agree or disagree with his statements throughout
the show, and Rock clearly engages with them. The loudest
audience reactions occur during Rock’s discussion of relationships
between black men and women and within the black family.
External to this process of engagement between Rock and the black
audience is the mainstream audience’s response and interpretation.
The comedian again is unconcerned with the white audience’s opinions
on the subject matter, and this again places him in the position
of revealing issues that reside behind black walls. 32
Rock has a clear agenda to recuperate the image of the black
father. 33 He believes that while the mother has a tough job, at least
she receives recognition for it. As he says,
Think about everything that the real daddy does—pay the bills, buy
the food, put a fucking roof over your head, everything you could
ask for. Make your world a better, safer place, and what does daddy
get? The big piece of chicken. That’s all daddy gets is the big piece
of chicken. And some women don’t want to give up the big piece of
chicken.