Every time I see someone whining about how the two-headed beast of cancel culture and political correctness is coming for Dave Chappelle, I can't help but think of how Eddie Murphy started apologizing for his homophobic bits all the way back in 1996.

As a stand-up comedy fan, part of the fun in following specific comics is in watching their material evolve over the years, both as a result of their own experiences and their audience's sensibilities — I remember watching 8:46 and thinking that we were witnessing Dave's evolution in real time, but... alas. As a Black fan in particular, it's immensely frustrating that Dave is quadrupling down on being willfully ignorant to the impact his sets about queer people can have, when one of the very few Black performers ahead of him on comedy's Rushmore managed to figure that out twenty-five years ago. And as a straight Black fan, the fact that he's hiding behind his own blackness to do it, all to set up some hackneyed "Us vs. Them" dichotomy that I'm supposed to side with him on, is fucking embarrassing.

Great piece, and the best of the (far too) many responses to The Closer I've read yet.