Chris Rock: Niggas vs. Black People Essay

This paper addresses the identity that is constructed of African-the Statesns through throw offs linguistic process employment of racial delivery and away(p) language. It also flacks to portray didders childs playction of the skit and the controversial attitudes that arose, including my consume. 1. 0 Introduction Sticks and st one and only(a)s may fluke your bones but denominations give never hurt you. alas for Randall Kennedy this limerick held no con nonation that he wished to acknowledge, as he recites his Mothers words, he finds himself in war with a word, a word that for each calamitous is at the core of inflicted pain Nigger.Kennedy narrates his Mothers escort during the era of the Jim Crow segregation, I micturate been called nigger to my face on a couple of occasions by deal who sought to fix their racial hatred or contempt for all fatals including me. (Kennedy, 2002) This word for Centuries, although has been at the centre of normalisation and em situa tionment in recent years, is the definition of disfavor assigned by white supremacists.Racial discourse has changed over the years, the media has been at the frontline of these changes along with the law and democratic societies yet the word nigger cool off re mains a temperamental taboo, its account foreshadows it and no matter what gumptionground the word may be holdd in, its ethnic inheritance warrants its preservation. (Kennedy, 20003) A man that attempted to manipulate its detrimental meaning was the illustrious comic Chris judder. lean is know for his politically incorrect humour and his fight to acquire racism and his 1996 HBO special, gravel the Pain public presentation is what give him his heartious positioning today.Niggas vs. nigrify commonwealth is a twist on street cultivation vs. working class it is a linguistically controversial skit that portrays how boorish behavior feeds racial classifys while including his own personal assessment of the eviden ce of Black America. rock and roll empowers the word nigger and attempts to change its injurious meaning. The pain this word has ca accustomd the black community has been an expedient one, compromising the dignity, identity and representation of their race. persuade intends to fight and abolish the pain and with this is calls his performance, Bring the pain. 2. 0 express joy Matters The intrusion of muzzleter is an sen durationntl that is sought after by numerous comedians it is the idea of laughter that arrive ats profound significance amongst its consultation. It gives society and the private door to the truth, truths which become identifiable from a divergent raft point, laughter serves as a means to understand both what is found in the globe and what is found within the individual. (Gray & Putnam, 200918). Without laughter fear would non be defeat and fears of the truth would not be overcome, with this society becomes reliant on laughter, it gives a mind of bel onging, understanding and serves as a joint understanding and belief. (Clark, 1996) This idea of the truth is based upon Bahktins theoretical view on laughter, as Gray and Putnam (2009 18) state, Laughter is also a defence mechanism against outer realities that contradict our inner truths. These truths and fears atomic number 18 identified with concepts such as, racism, politics and feminism. 2. 1 Encapsulating the reference To capture Daniels (1989 15) phrase when discussing the subjectivity of humour, its funny because it makes me laugh, highlights individual social ideologies, each individual has their own exercise of attitudes and beliefs and this then contributes to the success of an anecdote, whether or not it fits with ideological views is at the core of an auditory modalitys hilarity.It would be deemed accurate to acknowledge that comedy is maintained and controlled with ideological boundaries in soul however at the same time, the genius of comedy derives down to co medians get-up-and-go these boundaries, this disrupts social order and it advocates change and ridicules power sort of than reinforcing it, which relates back to this notion of identifying our inner truths.According to Daniels (1989 15), he states that comedy is not achieved through content alone, however when picking a plane section the memoir of African-American comedians on cruddy comedy it is in fact the content alone which becomes a pandemic with the characteristics of the comedians talk that sets off the entire performance. Dating back to the Minstrel era the pioneers of comedy today, Bert Austin Williams took coif to be the prime(prenominal) black American to take a lead role on a Broad port stage, Williams first became noticed in Vaudeville as a successful double-act Williams & Walker.Williams and Walker were a success for the black community, their acts were a representation of their race but they entertained white audiences by delivering acts that include content w hich demeaned their race using words such as, coon. At the risk of criticising the African-American race, they still, at the expense of their c beers performed for the white audience and their expectations.This stereotype of African-Americans is one that became a collective ritual of rhetoric complaint and occurrence. In 1951, a TV bespeak called Amos n Andy came to our screens but was cancelled in 1953 due to complaints from the NAACP (National association for the advancement of wringed people), who acknowledged the programme to be hardly one representation of black folks. Stereotyping is a process of discriminating perception by which the complex character of experience is filtered and simplified into icy categories. (Daniels 1989) Parallel to these representations of African-American figures in the media, notions cited from Daniels (19893) are those of Halls who profoundly highlights, the depiction of blacks in popular media is restricted to a repertoire of basic images th e slave, the native, the entertainer as only certain traits and characteristics are selected for emphasis. Black people were subjected to the notion that as a age group they were portrayed to be the same as one several(prenominal) other having no original identity as an African-American as there were no other representations of the black cultural community.comedians such as bastard Gregory, Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby and Eddie Murphy were just a few of many that fought against these racial negative stereotypes that were portrayed within the media. In 1984 the introduction to The Cosby testify was set across our screens. The idea of The Cosby Show which was rejected by ABC, they felt that America was not ready to accept the concept of an intact, black middle-class family. (Crenshaw, A) The Cosby Show declared positive attributes to the black stereotype in rivald to the black sitcoms that came before it.Although the success of The Cosby Show dispelled negative perceptions of the black community the initial idea was thrown, which contributes to racial segregation in American at that time during the 80s. However, the typical black family perception did change as a result of The Cosby Show and opened the doors for many comedians and sitcoms to come. The fresh prince of bell behavior and comedians such as Chappelle and Chris quaver were the start of a new propagation of insurgences. 3. 0 pits linguistic segregation Now weve got a lot of things, a lot of racism going on in the world right now. Whos more racist?Black people or white people black people. You know why, cause we despise black people too E verything white people wearyt deal about black people. Black people really dont like about black people. (Rock, 1996) In 1996 Chris Rock took to the stage with his controversial stand-up skit Niggaz vs. Black People at the HBO special Bring the pain performance. Like Bill Cosby, Rock too was in attempt to eradicate negative perceptions of the black commu nity but a way in which engages with a diverse group of audiences, to do this he interplayed cultural and linguistic taboos to mock ideological perceptions of African-American identities.Rocks main aim of the debated skit was to diminish stereotypes that were apparent amongst the American exoteric, this notion from white supremacists that African-American citizens are categorised to be all the same was, in Rocks eyes about to be obliterated. Rock proclaims Niggas to be in clear detachment from working class African-Americans, whose detrimental behaviour is loose detrimental negative images towards other black people, his attempts to deliver vital messages in a comedic format is a portraying of Rocks adamant endeavor to not earmark a nonage of troublesome individuals tarnish the image of the African-American.Every time black people wanna have a good time, ignorant ass niggas fuck it up. (Rock, 1996) His immediate aspiration is to of course eliminate racism not promote it, how ever from the view point from an audience member who are a collection of a variety of unlike races, the question to whether he reached out to all individual members is debatable due to ideological boundaries and beliefs, as discussed in (2. 1). Rock opens the show with Irony, it draws a white audience in and takes members of the public by bewilderment an African-American man is standing on stage telling his audience that black people are more racist.He has now captured communities of different races, whether that being good or severely he has his audience seized. He identifies his own community and creates a separate identity to others within the black community he takes these remarks make by the media, ideas that are created amongst groups of people and verbally throws it back allowing the power of discourse to be retained within the African-American community.Rock attempts to take on a social discourse, giving the political orientation Nigga a new contentious status, separating it from working class African-American citizens. In congruence to this, Gray and Putnam (200919) states, when referring to Chappelles Exploring Niggerdom, Chapelle succeeds in appropriating a terminology that has previously been held in the hands of the whites. By using language for his own purpose, with his own nuances and intentions, Chappelle takes back the power that whites had originally given to that language. The key notion that is represented here is power within language, although Rock attempts to capture this power as Chappelle (2003) successfully did, a small percentage of Rocks audience failed to unify to his language use decorously because of this Rock never performed that skit again. Some critics state that the black community was offended while others felt they too had the public authority to regulate the N word. 3. 1 The N word Nigger. in that respects black people and theres niggas and niggas have got to go. (Rock, 1996) The term nigger is one many do not wish to publically celebrate, it is derived from the Latin word Niger and has transformed over Centuries to hold different connotations throughout history, the term Nigger has been a frequent occurrence, its use is, employed to impose contempt upon blacks as an inferior race(Kennedy, 20025) It has even been active upon children with nursery rhymes, one that may be commonly known is, Eeny-meeny-miney-mo, whatsis a nigger by the toe, if he hollers let him go, eeny-meeny-miney-mo. Paradoxically, Nigga is a phrase that is now used frequently amongst black people, becoming a term of friendly salutation and even empowerment it is comedians, rappers and hip skip entertainment that have created this discourse. However, what Rock does with the word is give the term a negative perception to emphasise distinctions between social groups regardless of their race. harm such as, Nigger, fuck and shit, are commonly known to be censored words, taboo words, words that when used today in a western soci ety become intertwined with concepts of face and politeness. (Goffman, 1967 Brown & Levinson, 1978) face-saving views of politeness start from this idea that humans are rational agents who are conscious of their language choices.(Brown & Levinson, 1987 Clark, 1996 Grice, 1975 Locher, 2004) Both interacting participants, for example H and S, would have an care in maintaining each others face but oftentimes have to commit to face-threatening-acts. (Brown & Levinson, 1987) Face threatening acts can threaten the independence of Hs face and the face needfully of Ss, (Locher, 2004 66) in relation to this concept, when Rock uses racist speech and taboo language he puts his own face at risk, which knowingly as a comedian it is a risk that threatens the involvement of their face.When Rock uses commonly heard taboo language, there is a higher chance, as it has been heard before, that the audiences face needs are not jeopardised, however when using racial speech, for instance when Rock ma kes reference to the KKK, there is a possibility that face needs are threatened, whether that be the African-American community or the white community it seems Rock knew that his language use would threaten the face needs of some of his audience members as near the end of his performance he exclaims, Man, why you got to say that? It isnt us, its the media. The media has distorted our image to make us aroma bad.Why must you come down on us like that brother? Its not us, its the media. (Rock, 1996) Rock in this sense does not blame the media for the corrupt behaviour of what he calls Niggas, he blames the cohort nonage that are giving African-Americans a bad reputation. However to oppose this analogy Van Dijk (1992 513) brushes upon racism in the press and offers examples to emphasis the ideas that are represented within the black community. We have racism too and that is what is stinker the plot. It is not white racism. It is black racism But who is there to defend the white ma jority? Our tolerance is our strength, but we will not allow anyone to turn it into our weaknesses. (Sun, 24 October) The black community do have an problematical point when feeling face-threatened by Rocks notion of Black people vs. Niggas, as clear evidence of discrimination is shown within Newspaper words such as these, but Rock emphasises that it is the unruly, uneducated, minority of black people that are giving the community a bad name, he then puts himself in the habilitate of a white person, comedic irony again, by being a part of the KKK and feeling threatened at night when drawing money out at the money machine.What is so fundamental about the article above is the correlation in language use within Rocks opening night performance and the beginning of the article, two very similar introductions with two very different intentions and it may be perceived potentially by some members of Rocks audience that it was interpreted in ways that are incongruence to articles such as these, articles which are in denial of racism.The controversy caused by Rocks excessive use of the word Nigga led him to remove the piece from his act Jay chapiter (2012) stated that in a 60 minute interview Rock said, By the way, Ive never done that joke again, ever, and I in all likelihood never will. Cos some people that were racist thought they had license to say nigger. So, Im done with that routine. 4. 0 Cultural repair The cultural impact made by Rocks 1996 performance of Niggas vs.Black people has been an pragmatic one, Barack Obama made reference to his skit in a Fathers Day speech in 2008, it also made television as The office did a censored take on the monologue and audience members watching his 1996 performance still will laugh at his Ironic satire sketch. I certainly did, although Rock upstage the piece from his act due to overusing the word N word, his out of sight intention was genius. Rock was trying to give this word a new meaning, eradicating its history of c ontempt, he was trying to stop stereotypes of African-American people and push boundaries of the ideological perceptions within the audience.Rocks intention was to unveil a hidden truth, a truth that may be covered up by fear but must be defeated with laughter. (2. 0) Why should Rock not use this word and attempt to give it a different connotation, his ancestors were victims of slavery, his parents were victims of discrimination and ridicule why should he not poke fun at true racists by empowering the tern Nigger and giving hardworking African-Americans the vocalization to be disassociated with the word?A reference cited from Gray and Putnam (2009 23), is a adduce that correlates with my notion, Elizabeth Ludwig states, clearly, if comedy is an expression of abjection, then it must be an expression of ones own abjection. I feel Rock exerts his right to use this word, despite its negative media responses. It is true racists that watched this sketch and felt that discrimination aga inst black people was now acceptable, which is a shame because I feel what Rock intended to do was try to educate the thoughts of people who were of different ethnicities and it seems that the minority of these different racial groups let them down.Rocks main purpose was to target minority groups and bring to their attention to antiquated notions of stereotyping. 5. 0 Conclusion Rock is a linguistic comedic prodigy he faces racism head on and delivers his content in such a confident manner that he encapsulates the audience and brings cathartic laughter from a masochistic inheritance. He draws upon truths, pushes ideological boundaries and empowers racial speech this language use constructs a distinctive identity of working class African-Americans which is separated from the minority of gang culture which is influenced by bad behavior.Although the term nigger is used in a way that contradicts is ideological meaning and portrays positive perceptions of working class African American c itizens, the term can be portrayed differently from different perspectives in the audience. I think people who use the term nigger in their speech should bear the risk that listeners overhearing them will misunderstand their intentions. (Kennedy, 2002146) The truth about the N-word is that even as a euphemism the term should still be pointless due to historical context, the way in which the word has been empowered gains postcode but positive attributes however I feel its connotative history foreshadows its use and no matter who attempts to manipulate its meaning its history will always remain. References Brown, P, & Levinson, S. (1987) Politeness. Cambridge Cambridge U. P. Chung, J. (2002) The Burden of Laughter Chris Rock fights ignorance his way.In The booth respect essays http//bootheprize. stanford. edu/0102/PWR-Chung. pdf Clark, H, H. (2006) Using Language. Cambridge Cambridge University Press. Crenshaw, A. The Cosby Show changes the way blacks are viewed. http//www. shenet. org/high/hsacaddept/English/ddayton/Documents/Media/Stereotypes/Cosby%20Show%20Article. pdf Daniels, T. (1989) The colour black. British Film institute London. Goffman, E. (2005) Interaction Ritual Essays In personal Behavior. New Brunswick N. J. Kennedy, R. (2002) Nigger.Vintage Books USA. Locher, M, A. (2004) Power and Politeness in Action Disagreements in Oral Communication. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG Berlin. Van Dijk, T. (1992) Discourse and the denial of racism. Sage Publications Ltd. Washington, J. (2012) Comedian Chris Rock sparks controversy with Independence Day tweet. http//educatedinsanity. com/2012/07/06/comedian-chris-rock-sparks-controversy-with-independence-day-tweet/ Wisniewski, K. A. (2009) The comedy of Dave Chappelle critical essays. McFarland USA.