Comedian Chris Rock’s latest comedy Top Five may be the talk of Hollywood right now, but his comments on the recent unrest in Ferguson, Mo. and beyond is what blew us away.
During a New York Magazine Q&A with Rock and interviewer Frank Rich, Rock talked candidly about protests in Ferguson following the death of Michael Brown Jr., and his idea of what black progress is.
Nope, it’s not President Obama being the first black president. That, Rock said, is white progress.
When we talk about race relations in America or racial progress, it’s all nonsense. There are no race relations. White people were crazy. Now they’re not as crazy. To say that black people have made progress would be to say they deserve what happened to them before…
So, to say Obama is progress is saying that he’s the first black person that is qualified to be president. That’s not black progress. That’s white progress. There’s been black people qualified to be president for hundreds of years. If you saw Tina Turner and Ike having a lovely breakfast over there, would you say their relationship’s improved? Some people would. But a smart person would go, “Oh, he stopped punching her in the face.” It’s not up to her. Ike and Tina Turner’s relationship has nothing to do with Tina Turner. Nothing. It just doesn’t. The question is, you know, my kids are smart, educated, beautiful, polite children. There have been smart, educated, beautiful, polite black children for hundreds of years. The advantage that my children have is that my children are encountering the nicest white people that America has ever produced. Let’s hope America keeps producing nicer white people.
Damn. Check out more of Rock’s insightful interview here.
SOURCE: Vulture | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty
