Chris Rock finally weighed in on Jimmy Fallon's controversial blackface impression of the comedian that found its way onto the internet in May. Rock is one of the SNL cast at different times, and the two are friends outside of work.
Comedians have faced a reckoning over the last few years as instances of blackface from their past resurface in the news. Sarah Silverman apologized in 2015 and on multiple occasions since then for deploying the historically racist performance style in a sketch on her Comedy Central show. In June, Jimmy Kimmel apologized for using blackface multiple times to impersonate various celebrities, including Oprah and Snoop Dogg. A clip of Fallon playing Chris Rock on SNL in blackface circulated online this spring, for which Fallon apologized on Twitter.
Rock forgave Jimmy in a new interview with promote Fargo season 4.
"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."
Rock also clarified that his official stance on the matter is that "blackface is bad" to forestall any would-be cancellers misconstruing his meaning. "Blackface ain’t cool, OK? That’s my quote. Blackface is bad. Who needs it?" the comedian asked. "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."
Ongoing protests in response to the death of George Floyd that began in May have sparked a broader conversation about racial injustice beyond police treatment of Black Americans. Social media s have criticized TV shows and movies for their lack of representation or, conversely, mishandling the issue by resorting to stereotypes and racist tropes. Blackface is considered by many to be the most offensive representation of Black people in entertainment for its malicious exploitation of racial hatred for capital gain.
Recently, networks and streaming services have pulled episodes of various television shows like whether intention matters in these cases, or whether blackface is unacceptable in any context. Tina Fey argued that intent isn't an excuse for racism when requesting that the 30 Rock episodes be pulled. Jamie Foxx, on the other hand, defended Jimmy Fallon in an Instagram comment that distinguished between using blackface makeup to perform Black stereotypes and doing an impression of a specific person. While complex social issues cannot be resolved between individuals, in this case, Chris Rock, the subject of the impression, wasn't personally offended.
Source: The New York Times