chapelle skit

Ricky Woodie
Ethics.
Media post
October 1, 2007

Chapelle

The Chapelle show is a show on comedy central that is know for doing many skits about racism. The skit that I chose to use is one about a white family called the “Niggar Family”. This skit is about a white family who is used to portray how blacks are viewed in society. In this skit the family has characteristics of black Americans according to society. This ties into Johnson chapter two, when he talks about who we are. In this chapter on pages 15 and 16 Johnson talks about how people are characterized. He talks about how we can characterize people by simply just looking at them. Here Chapelle is saying how other races view African Americans in society.
In this skit Chapelle has the characters describe black people, by having them describe the “Niggar Family”. In one scene Chapelle has a family talk about how one of the “Niggar’s” is dating their daughter. At first they are not happy, (showing how the family doesn’t want their daughter dating a black kid) but then they explain how its one of the “Niggars”. They go on to talk about how he is an athlete and that it would make them rich. This shows how people view blacks as athletes. He also talks about how blacks are viewed as having big lips, not paying the bills, and that they are lazy. He uses all these characteristics when describing the white family “the Niggars” to show how blacks are viewed.
In my opinion I think Chapelle does a good job of showing how blacks are viewed in society. Many of these characteristics are some that we talked about in class. I think the Chapelle show is a funny show that is able to poke fun at racism and show how dumb it really is.