A couple relevant thoughts from a recent interview with CNN.com:
CNN: What are you hoping Barack Obama does for this country? What do you think is his most important task?
Rock: You know, if you’re the president you only have two jobs: peace and money. That’s it. I mean, it’s like, what did Clinton do? We were at peace and we had a budget surplus. That’s it. That’s the gig. The closer you get us to those two goals, you know, that’s pretty much the gig. Is that too much to ask for?
CNN: At one point in your act, you said, “Racism will never die. It will only multiply.” Why do you believe that?
Rock: Well, it’s never going to die. Maybe it won’t multiply. Is racism going to end? No.
It’s not even race. People are always going to, you know, find something wrong with people who are not the exact same as them. That’s just what it is. Black, white, short, tall, religions, whatever. People are bad, man.
CNN: How was it different playing for an audience in Africa?
Rock: You know it’s weird — it really wasn’t that different. I mean, that’s why I love this special. People are the same wherever you go. And if they weren’t, they wouldn’t laugh at the same s**t. If they were so different they wouldn’t know what I was talking about.
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5 responses to “Chris Rock on Obama, Racism, Anthropology”
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Browsing to CNN.com today because of the inaug?
I love Chris Rock’s observations. Very profound.
Very interesting. Though I do think he isn’t quite right in saying “People are bad, man.” I think he sees that there is the potential and reality of “Bad” within people, but he doesn’t seem to grasp the idea that this is a PART of humankind – a very real and evidenced element. But it’s not the end of the story!
In my experience, the opposite is true. There is the potential and reality of good within people, true, but people are bad, man. It’s so comforting to know my “Western” “modern” mind might have more in common with other people than people keep trying to tell me it does.
“People they aaain’t nooo good” – Nick Cave