Full interview on New York Times by Dave Itzkoff.

Chris Rock Tried to Warn Us

In a candid interview, the comic discusses America’s summer of strife, Trump, blackface and his dramatic turn in the new season of “Fargo.”

Outtakes from the interview about how it's Democrats fault for letting Covid-19 enter USA, Obama becoming president was a progress for white people & Jimmy Fallon's blackface.

You performed at one of Chappelle’s live shows in July. What was that like for you?

When you’re in the clubs, you learn the rain crowd is the best crowd. Any time it’s raining, they really want to be there. The pandemic crowd is really good. “Dude, not only do we want to be here, there is nothing else to do. There’s nothing else to watch. Thank you.

What did you talk about?

I talked about our political whatever. America. Part of the reason we’re in the predicament we’re in is, the president’s a landlord. No one has less compassion for humans than a landlord. Laughs. And we’re shocked he’s not engaged.
Did you ever see that movie “The Last Emperor,” where like a 5-year-old is the emperor of China? There’s a kid and he’s the king. So I’m like, it’s all the Democrats’ fault. Because you knew that the emperor was 5 years old. And when the emperor’s 5 years old, they only lead in theory. There’s usually an adult who’s like, “OK, this is what we’re really going to do.” And it was totally up to Pelosi and the Democrats. Their thing was, “We’re going to get him impeached,” which was never going to happen. You let the pandemic come in. Yes, we can blame Trump, but he’s really the 5-year-old.

Put it this way: Republicans tell outright lies. Democrats leave out key pieces of the truth that would lead to a more nuanced argument. In a sense, it’s all fake news.

Looking back at the beginning of “Tamborine,” the first several minutes is you talking about police violence and raising Black children in a racist country. Does it feel futile when you discuss these issues and it doesn’t change anything?

I remember when “Tamborine” dropped, I got a lot of flak over that cop thing. There was a lot of people trying to start a fire that never really picked up. It’s so weird that, two years later, it’s right on. I remember watching the news and Trump said “bad apples.” It was like, you did it! You did it!

But you told people two years ago —

I did. But so did Public Enemy. So did KRS-One. So did Marvin Gaye. There’s something about seeing things on camera. If O.J. kills Nicole on camera, the trial is two days. Laughs. It’s two days trying to figure out what kind of cell he deserves. It’s just Johnnie going, Johnnie Cochran voice “Well I think he needs at least a 12-by-8. Can he have ESPN?” That would be the whole trial.

But there was videotape of Rodney King’s beating, too. It doesn’t assure any particular outcome.

Yeah, man. Put it this way: This is the second great civil rights movement. And Dr. King and those guys were amazing. But they knew nothing about money. They didn’t ask for anything. At the end of the day, the things we got — it was just, hey, can you guys be humane? All we got was, like, humanity. If they had it to do all over again, in hindsight, there would be some attention paid to the financial disparity of all the years of — let’s not even count slavery, let’s just count Jim Crow.
You’re talking about a system that really didn’t end until about 1973. And I’m born in ’65 in South Carolina. I’m probably in a segregated wing of a hospital — there’s no way in the world I was next to a white baby. Even if the hospital wasn’t segregated, I was in a whole other room and that room didn’t have the good milk and the good sheets. My parents couldn’t own property in certain neighborhoods when I was born. There was an economic disparity there, and that was not addressed in the original civil rights movement. It was a huge oversight. So there’s no money and there’s no land. If you don’t have either one of those, you don’t really have much.

You’ve been telling audiences for years that racism isn’t going away and remains a potent force in America. Do you feel like you’ve seen circumstances improve at all?

It’s real. It’s not going away. I said this before, but Obama becoming the president, it’s progress for white people. It’s not progress for Black people. It’s the Jackie Robinson thing. It’s written like he broke a barrier, as if there weren’t Black people that could play before him. And that’s how white people have learned about racism. They think, when these people work hard enough, they’ll be like Jackie. And the real narrative should be that these people, the Black people, are being abused by a group of people that are mentally handicapped. And we’re trying to get them past their mental handicaps to see that all people are equal.
Humanity isn’t progress — it’s only progress for the person that’s taking your humanity. If a woman’s in an abusive relationship and her husband stops beating her, you wouldn’t say she’s made progress, right? But that’s what we do with Black people. We’re constantly told that we’re making progress. The relationship we’re in — the arranged marriage that we’re in — it’s that we’re getting beat less.

Jimmy Fallon drew significant criticism this past spring for a 20-year-old clip of himself playing you in blackface on “Saturday Night Live.” How did you feel about that segment?

Hey, man, I’m friends with Jimmy. Jimmy’s a great guy. And he didn’t mean anything. A lot of people want to say intention doesn’t matter, but it does. And I don’t think Jimmy Fallon intended to hurt me. And he didn’t.

There’s been a wider push to expunge blackface from any movies or TV shows where it previously appeared. Have people taken it too far?

If I say they are, then I’m the worst guy in the world. There’s literally one answer that ends my whole career. Blackface ain’t cool, OK? That’s my quote. Blackface is bad. Who needs it? It’s so sad, we live in a world now where you have to say, I am so against cancer. “I just assumed you liked cancer.” No, no, no, I am so against it. You have to state so many obvious things you’re against.

Who do you hang with these days? Who’s your peer group?

I hang with Dave Chappelle. I hang with my kids. I hang with Nelson George. There’s not a lot of hanging in the Covid world. The better question is, who do you FaceTime with?

So who do you FaceTime with?

The other day I realized I’ve never met an elderly person that was cared for by their friends. Every elderly person I know that’s got any trouble is cared for by a spouse or a child. Sometimes they have like five kids but only one helps. Where are your friends? Your friends are probably not going to be there when it really counts. Laughs. When my dad was dying in the hospital, where were his friends? My grandmother, where were her friends? Don’t get me wrong, you get sick in your 20s, your friends will come to the hospital. It’s an adventure. Laughs. You get sick in your 60s, they farm it out. “You go Wednesday and I’ll go Sunday.”

Enjoy them while you have them. But if you think your friends are your long-term solution to loneliness, you’re an idiot.

Stupid. Both lie and leave out key info. Id argue the dems lie a bit more and republicans spin truth more, but more or less the same s***.

Stfu and vote for biden in november or else

He’s right

Edit: title was changed. I was saying “he’s right” to the original title, which was along the lines of both Democrats and Publicans sucking

peoples party coming soon

And he ain’t lying

How the f*** are you gonna say stupid and then literally agree with what he said for the most part? F***ing idiot

Damn

He right

Yooo

The people on here constantly equating liberals to conservatives as if they're the same monster are literal eds.

arent you a leftist/socialist though?

“shadow governments and such” - joey badass

hype for him in fargo though

yea. dont get me wrong its still f*** liberals since they ultimately serve the bourgeois ruling class and work to uphold it, while simultaneously preaching about change without really bringing it

but at least liberals aren't working AGAINST climate change/minority/gay/trans rights. Obama was an Imperialist, but you can't tell me his domestic policies were the same as Trumps. he put things in motion but the president can only do so much, people mad that Obama didn't completely revolutionize s*** don't understand how the government works

lots of liberals are slowly waking up to the s***tiness of Capitalism too; you think the same is happening with tories? F*** no

literally read his post three times because i couldnt believe it lmaooo

i mostly agree, i think a lot of hatred* towards liberalism stems from undue expectations and a lack of nuance (i.e. it's either you nationalize the energy industry and force a five year transition to zero carbon, or your clean energy policy is tantamount to climate denial).

but yeah i was just curious because your view is pretty different from a lot of other leftists here

*obv the dislike of liberalism because it is inherently opposed to socialism is a given. when i say hatred i mean takes like "the DNC is as bad as trump" etc

thank you

liberals are not the same as conservatives, theyre worse

those pics are hard

Only one side wants to truly destroy the country tho. And the world.

Denying science and climate change is literally going to end civilization as we know it.