(No caption)
Casey Rocheteau, a published Detroit poet, accuses Dave Chappelle of feeling entitled to "punch downward" at his Detroit fans.
He "got paid more money [by Netflix] than I’ll see in my lifetime to make dumb jokes about shit he doesn’t care to have the empathy to learn about," posts the Brooklyn transplant, who came here from Crown Heights at the end of 2014 as the first Write a House literary residence program winner. "That’s really the issue to me: Dude is too consumed with himself to even care."
Rocheteau pokes the standup comedian forcefully at Medium in a post headlined "Does Dave Chappelle Care About Black People?"
The trigger is Chappelle's new Netflix videos with riffs about being booed of The Fillmore stage in Detroit in 2015 and blowing off a Flint benefit the next year.
Casey Rocheteau on Dave Chappelle: "The era that launched his career is over and he hasn’t caught up."
Rocheteau, 31 year-old author of a 2016 poetry collection titled "The Dozen", blasts the 43-year-old comic as out-of-touch, unrepentant, "transphobic, homophobic and misogynist." She also accuses Chappelle of "having a blasé attitude about Detroit [and] Flint."
I remember TMZ posting about Dave being booed offstage in Detroit, and in the set-up I thought we’d see a smart, thoughtful introduction to two specials where maybe Dave would talk about where he’s been in the last 10 years, with Pryor-style self reflection and wit.
But nah, he set up that joke to shit on Detroit. That’s some Lena Dunham shit. That’s the intro, that he got so high he bombed in Detroit and he wasn’t refunding people’s money.
It’s a city populated predominantly by black folks who work their asses off to get by and he’s fucking with his fans’ money. That’s what got me.. . .
Also, how you gonna make "Half Baked" and say two puffs of weed got you too fucked up to do your damn job? It’s one thing to bomb, or get sick while touring, but it’s a whole other thing to just be a rich guy acting like a reckless teenager who can’t handle their shit. There was no introspection to it, just “fuck you pay me, now let’s move on so I can punch downward.” . . .
He’s reached what I call old black man status, where you just can’t tell this Negro shit about shit and expect him to hear you. And he’s not even that old.
The era that launched his career is over and he hasn’t caught up. And yeah, I’m fairly certain every single black person knows dudes like Dave Chappelle who think rape and the lives of queer and trans folks are funny, but those dudes aren’t making $60 million dollars off of that shit, nor do they have the ability to reach millions of people and validate their ignorance. But oh how they and their “more woke” brethren will go out of their way to excuse Dave Chappelle, to try to justify some ignorant shit I can only presume they co-sign.
Coincidentally, Governor Rick Snyder estimated it would take $60 million to fix Flint’s water pipes. So technically, he could fix Flint’s water, I’m just saying.
A poetry collection issued last year by Sibling Rivalry Press of Little Rock, Ark.
The smash-face broadside is based on evidence, not assumptions or social media outcries.
"I got five minutes into 'The Age of Spin' and was pissed," writes Rocheteau, describing Chappelle as her favorite comedian until last year. "I watched the two full specials anyway, even rewatched the first one to make sure I wasn’t being overly sensitive."
What she saw was "a layer cake of IDGAF, having a blasé attitude about Detroit, Flint, the first women to allege Bill Cosby raped them, trans people, Key and Peele, you name it."
She has no microphone, isn't on stage at The Fillmore and doesn't earn millions, but this Detroiter's strong voice is heard loudly and clearly.
Related post:
Comic Dave Chappelle Was Wasted on Weed at Lousy Detroit Show, He Admits, March 22
