Dave Chappelle’s “Mad Real World” Portrays Current Racial Injustice
In 1993, the second season of MTV’s wildly popular show “The Real World” was produced in Los Angeles. Unlike the first season, which took place in a New York City loft, the second season was made in a $2 million dollar home near the California beach.[9] The new season also differed from the original in that it had the first eviction of a cast member from the show. David Edwards, the only black male in the house, was evicted after a joke with one of the woman was taken the wrong way, causing the rest of the cast to feel that David was dangerous.
In 1992, Edwards was an up and coming comedian who happened to be a childhood friend of Dave Chappelle. Chappelle wanted to help progress Edwards’ career, initially by aiding him in landing a role on The Real World. He also added Edwards to the cast in his movie Half Baked in 1994. Although Chappelle was successful in helping Edwards accelerate his career, he remained upset about his friend’s early exit from The Real World. As a result, Chappelle released the skit “The Mad Real World”, which aired in the first season of The Chappelle Show in 2003.[2],[10]
Edwards was evicted from the California home on the set of The Real World when he jokingly pulled the covers off of an almost naked Tami. Although Edwards claimed to be joking, and despite a similar incident involving two different white roommates going unpunished, the rest of the cast found the event between David and Tami shocking, and put enough pressure on Edwards to leave the house. Chappelle, introducing “The Mad Real World” to an audience, explains how “a black dude” is put on the show every few years just to freak out because he’s surrounded by six crazy white people. Chappelle continues by saying “They would not like if we made a show where we put one white person around six of the craziest black people we could find.”
“The Mad Real World” blatantly offers racist stereotypes to its viewers. As Chad, the only white roommate, enters the house, he is greeted by young black adults getting haircuts, playing cards, smoking, and fighting — all activities which seem irregular for a typical white American home. When Chad introduces himself to the first roommate he meets, Faze, he is offered a hit of a joint, on which he coughs violently. After meeting TyRee, a tough thug who went to prison, Chad goes to his room. On his way up, however, he is heckled by TyRee who says, “Well looky here Chad, for the entire period you in my room, I betta not catch you standin’ up peeing, you sit down when you pee, you understand?” . Tron, another roommate, also tells Chad “night night, keep ya butt hole tight.” Later, after failing to work at a juice bar, TyRee, Tron, and Faze smoke and play dice instead of working like Chad is trying to encourage them to do. TyRee says, “Yo what is your problem man? Why you wanna work so hard huh?” Tron then continues “Yeah man, America wanna see us live, not work.” Tron brings up yet another stereotype of many black Americans who believe that they can become famous by becoming a celebrity or athlete; however, this idealism is also taken by as many white Americans as well, especially in young adults and teenagers.[12]
While the overwhelming majority of white Americans want American minorities to live a normal life without having to work like slaves, not as many are as open to social equality for minorities. Although America has seen rapid progression towards equality between whites and minorities in the last 40 years, the nation is still far from perfect equality. In a recent study surveying students from large universities, less than half of all students had more than two friends who were either a minority or foreign student, according to a recent Voice of America blog; this fact is shocking, especially since college students are often considered to be one of the most progressive groups in the country. While there are many factors as to why this could be, part of the reason could be due to a lack of empathy between races; for instance, a minority student from the University of Southern California interviewed by Voice of America said that students from other cultures don’t understand her, because they don’t understand her struggles.[7]
The character of “The Mad Real World” experience similar problems. Similarly to the USC student, Chad is unfamiliar with the practices and culture of the other roommates. Chad doesn’t know how to smoke, while other members of the house are proficient at smoking and subsequently can take bigger hits without coughing. Chad also doesn’t understand the discrepancy between his and his co-workers work ethic, which results in arguments, loss of friendship, and ultimately ends in punishment of Chad. On the other side of the spectrum, the roommates don’t understand the needs that Chad has during the episode. Chad becomes angered or upset when his father is hurt, his girlfriend is stolen, and his sleep is taken from him via partying. However, the roommates don’t understand why Chad acts annoyed and view his emotions as dangerous, eventually kicking him out of the house for them.
Following his popular stand-up routine “Killing them Softly,” Chappelle, along with Neal Brennan, created the widely acclaimed “Chappelle Show”, which saw huge success and led to Viacom offering Chappelle a $55 million deal to produce the show. However, after a stand-up routine in Sacramento went horribly wrong for Chappelle, with people heckling him by yelling “I’m Rick James, Bitch,”, along with his exhaustion from working on the show and his realization that most people were laughing at him instead of at his cleverly crafted jokes, Chappelle prematurely left the money and the show and took a hiatus from Hollywood to relax in South Africa. During his standup routine in Sacramento, he yelled at the audience “You know why my show is good? Because the network officials say you’re not smart enough to get what I’m doing, and every day I fight for you. I tell them how smart you are. Turns out, I was wrong. You people are stupid.”[6]
In “The Mad Real World,” most Americans will find humor in TyRee for being a prison inmate and stabbing Chad’s Dad, Faze for being a drug addict, and Tron for putting Chad in a sleeper hold and stealing his money; however, most people don’t look between the characters, scenery, and jokes to realize the many messages Chappelle is conveying throughout the sketch.
In the sketch, Chad is forced to do all the work at the juice bar because the other roommates don’t want to work. Very subtle humor can be found in the name of the juice bar, ReJuice-A-Nation, because its name is a reference to the old movie “Birth of a Nation”. In the old film, the KKK rallies and reunites to protect women from African Americans, who are portrayed as savages, unintelligent, and sexually driven towards white women. The film is credited with the second revival of the KKK in Stone Mountain, Georgia, and also complements Rejuice-A-Nation in the sketch because in both the movie and the juice bar, the minority in each situation is held down under the power of the majority; for example, Tron makes his own, custom juice which has marijuana and liquor, and while Chad tries to tell Tron to stop, Tron gets in his face and intimidates Chad by calling him a “nigger”, which causes Chad to back down.
After the juice bar scene in the sketch, Chad’s girlfriend Katie visits the house, and although Chad believes that he and Katie may soon get married, TyRee and his friend Lysol end up taking Katie from Chad and eventually both fornicate with her.
Just like Chad, slaves in the antebellum United States, who could be unofficially married by their masters, could still be separated from the spouses and children all at the digression of their owners. [5] Chad experiences the same action as Katie is taken from him for the personal needs of the other male roommates of the house.
When Chad’s Dad comes to visit, Zondra, one of the female roommates, gets upset at “how he lookin’ at [her],” and as a result, TyRee violently stabs him multiple times. Tron also, for no apparent reason, puts Chad in a “sleeper hold,” from which he passes out. Chad loses his wallet, and while being interviewed the next day says, “Be careful if you get in a sleeper hold, because the next day your anus will really hurt”.
Similarly, slaves were often beaten mercilessly for disobeying simple rules, sometimes for no particular reason at all.[11] Chad and his Dad both experience this unnecessary punishment when they are attacked by different members of the house.
By being forced to do all the work, having his girlfriend Katie forcefully taken away, and being unnecessarily and excessively punished, Chad embodies the lives of slaves from the antebellum south, as well as minorities being unfairly treated currently. There are many more examples of the white population forcing minorities to follow these unfair patterns, including forcing Asians Americans to relocate during WWII, relocating Native Americans around the United States, excluding women from voting and holding office, and police using excessive force on African Americans all showcase these injustices.
By reversing the role of the white man from superior to servant, Chappelle forces Americans, especially white males, to consider a position of inferiority to others. While the switch seems impractical in modern day society where whites vastly outnumber other minorities, the reality of the situation is that black Americans are a minority group experiencing unequal treatment that often does seem like modern slavery.
In 2014, Eric Garner, a middle aged black man, was choked to death by police after he was illegally selling cigarettes on a street corner and resisted being arrested. The policeman, Daniel Pantaleo, was removed from the police force, however, he wasn’t found guilty of any crimes when tried. Pantaleo also was tried in 2013 for forcing two black men to strip naked in public so that Pantaleo could search them, however, Pantaleo was again not charged with any crimes. Chad is related to Garner and all police brutality victims as he is outnumbered and choked to unconsciousness before his wallet is stolen and he is unable to defend himself.[2][4]
After police brutality occurs, the live victim often still goes to prison. According to the NAACP, about 58% of all prisoners are either African American or Hispanic, while both groups make up only around 25% of the population. Primarily, this is due to unfair prison sentencing based on drugs. For every one black American who uses drugs, there are five white Americans who use the same drugs, however, many more black Americans are sentenced to prison for drug use. In state prisons alone, 59% of the African American inmates were arrested for drug use. These inmates also face longer sentences compared to their white counterparts, and black Americans with drug charges often face similar prison time as white Americans face for a violent crime.[1]
Despite massive protests from Americans of all nationalities throughout the last few decades, change is slow to come. Throughout his comedy and particularly through “The Mad Real World”, Chappelle has tried to target this discrepancy. Despite his best efforts to fix the problems in the house, Chad is still forced to leave, being told “we just don’t feel safe around you,” when he, in fact, is the most susceptible to danger. “We reserve the right to fuck you up,” Tron tells Chad as he tries to reason his innocence. David Edwards had a similar but less extreme experience duringThe Real World, with his other white roommates threatening to ruin his career and image, forcing him out of the house. Chappelle’s skit slyly pokes fun at the unfair disadvantages that minorities face today, and urges those in power and with privilege to look at the other side of the spectrum.
References
1. “CRIMINAL JUSTICE FACT SHEET.” NAACP. January 1, 2015. Accessed February 5, 2015. http://www.naacp.org/pages/criminal-justice-fact-sheet.
2. “David Edwards.” IMDb. Accessed February 4, 2015. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0249924/.
3. “’I Can’t Breathe’: Eric Garner Put in Chokehold by NYPD Officer — Video.” The Guardian. December 4, 2014. Accessed February 5, 2015. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2014/dec/04/i-cant-breathe-eric-garner-chokehold-death-video.
4. McCoy, Kevin. “Choke-hold Cop Sued in Prior Misconduct Cases.” USA Today. December 4, 2014. Accessed February 5, 2015. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/12/04/choke-hold-cop-pantaleo-sued/19899461/.
5. NPR Staff. “Piecing Together Stories Of Families ‘Lost In Slavery’” NPR. July 16, 2012. Accessed February 5, 2015. http://www.npr.org/2012/07/16/156843097/piecing-together-stories-of-families-lost-in-slavery.
6. Powell, Kevin. “Heaven Hell Dave Chappelle.” Esquire. April 30, 2006. Accessed April 5, 2015. http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ0506CHAPPELLE_92.
7. Stahl, Jessica. “Why Aren’t Americans and International Students Becoming Friends?” Voice of America. June 19, 2012. Accessed February 5, 2015. http://blogs.voanews.com/student-union/2012/06/19/why-aren’t-americans-and-international-students-becoming-friends/.
8. The Mad Real World. Performed by Dave Chappelle, Christian Finnegan, Donnell Rawlings, Charlie Murphy, Tiffany Thompson, Jenn Perkins Stephens, Patrick Garner, Amy Garber, Craig MuMs Grant. United States: Viacom, 2003. Film.
9. “The Real World: Los Angeles Beach House”. Real World Houses. Retrieved November 24, 2011.
10. Uwumarogie, Victoria. “Where Are They Now? 11 Of The Most Rachet, Lovable and Controversial Black Folks From “The Real World”.” Madame Noir. August 15, 2012. Accessed February 5, 2015. http://madamenoire.com/204553/where-are-they-now-11-of-the-most-rachet-lovable-and-controversial-black-folks-from-the-real-world/5/.
11. “Violence against Slaves.” A North East Story. January 1, 2008. Accessed February 5, 2015. http://www.abdn.ac.uk/slavery/4p4.htm.
12. Taylor, Jim. “Your Children are Under Attack.” (Naperville, Illinois, 2005)
