There are a few interesting nuggets in the Chris Rock Esquire interview. But this little exchange between magazine contributor Scott Raab and the actor-comedian makes them sound, well, let’s just say a bit insular.
“Like many nice Caucasians,” says Raab, “I cried the night Barack Obama was elected. It was one of the high points in American history. And all that’s happened since the election is just a s—tstorm of hatred. You want to weigh in on that?” To which Rock replies, “I actually like it, in the sense that—you got kids? Kids always act up the most before they go to sleep. And when I see the Tea Party and all this stuff, it actually feels like racism’s almost over. Because this is the last—this is the act up before the sleep. They’re going crazy. They’re insane. You want to get rid of them—and the next thing you know, they’re f—g knocked out. And that’s what’s going on in the country right now.” To which Raab adds, “I hope so. Because it seems like a lot of people feel they just can’t live with this man being president.”
No need to explain why the Tea Party is racist. They just are—it’s a given. And if the president loses reelection, we’ll know whom to blame—all those not-so-nice Caucasians! And yes, the interviewer admits that he wept. (I, myself, cried at the end of La Bamba.)
The political detour is unfortunate since Rock does have interesting things to say about stand-up comedy, whom he likes (at the moment, it’s Louis C.K. and Hannibal Buress), and the fickleness of Hollywood.
(I, too, owned a Jimmy Walker hat when I was a kid. It was made of denim and simply said, “Dyn-o-mite.”)
Raab wonders if Eddie Murphy serves as a cautionary tale. Says Rock,
At least they didn’t talk about how Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and the Tea Party ordered Jared Loughner to shoot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. I guess Raab knew that, too, was a given.
