Dave Chappelle Reflects On America's Reaction To George Floyd's Murder

Source: D’USSE / D’usse

The murder of George Floyd is still fresh on the minds of everyone who witnessed the horrific 8-minute and 46-second video shared on social media.

After his passing, Dave Chappelle released a short stand-up titled 8:46, which doubled as an open conversation on how he felt at the time. One of the main points in his special was the fact that people are desensitized to watching unarmed black men get killed online. Dave is now expanding on that topic on an upcoming episode of David Letterman’s My Next Guest.

In the clip, Dave reiterates how blown away he is about the fact that people aren’t discussing how wild it is to see black men being killed via video so often. It’s not normal and we shouldn’t keep acting as if it is. When Letterman asks Chappelle about the difference in the aftermath of Floyd’s death and if things are changing, Dave doesn’t shy away from pointing out the battle it will be to actually change America.

“I’m not making any predictions. I’m very hopeful, yes, that there will be real change, and just traditionally, just from my experience, change is never like a comfortable proposition. It’s uncomfortable before it’s comfortable again.”

The comedian also touched on the death of John Lewis and how his passing marked a “tragic footnote” in a time where his fight for social justice was needed the most:

“What a tragic footnote to a tragic culture,” said Dave. “This is a lot to unpack. Nights like this are important. Just talking about it. We’re countrymen, all of us. We live in America. It’s weird now, because this game of ‘who suffered more,’ everyone keeps getting the ball. They act like everyone’s suffering is mutually exclusive from everyone else’s, and you and I both know that this is far from the case.”

Back in September, Dave Chappelle was forced to shut down his “Intimate Socially Distanced Affair” series in Yellow Springs, Ohio because of Coronavirus concerns.

The episode will be worth a watch as this is all just from a three-minute clip. The entire episode releases Wednesday, October 21 on Netflix.