Womens studies
Blog #1
Dave Chappelle’s “The Niggar Family”
The media stream that I chose to use for my blog was a skit off of the Chappelle show entitled “The Niggar” Family. This was a satirical skit poking fun at the social norms and values of the “Perfect” traditional American family of the 1950’s portrayed in television in this time period e.g.; “I love Lucy”. The skit reflects these socially constructed norms and values while at the same time incorporating the strong racial prejudice and oppression of African Americans in American simultaneously within this same time period. The humor in this skit is when Chappelle reverses these roles by having this particular white family with the last name “Nigger”. Within this concept he bounces off black stereotypes and situations where this traditional white family is referred to as Niggars and it is perfectly acceptable. Along with the shock factor of using the N-word, I felt this was a very clever skit by Chappelle that besides lightly perpetuating stereotypes, he also highlighted the shameful history of racism and discrimination in this country in a way that reversed the roles between whites and blacks to really show the meaning of “spending a day in another mans shoes.”
This skit strongly resembled the TV classic “I love Lucy” and other shows around this time in its structure, its black and white color, and theme song reminiscent of TV shows of that era. These shows reflected social norms from that time and embodied ideologies’ of the “Traditional” family of the 1950’s with all the amenities of the 2 family household with perfectly behaving kids, well mannered family, and a “white picket fence”. Dave Chappelle took this and created an imbalance by naming this “perfect” traditional 1950’s American family “Niggar” while in the mince of America’s deeply rooted dark era of strong racism and segregation that was occurring simultaneously during this time. There is humor to be found within a time in American history where the social norms and values where ever so opposite! Dave Chappele capitalized on this aspect brilliantly, bouncing the strong racism and stereotyping of one of this countries darkest era of intolerance towards every type of multiculturism, and reflecting it off the “mask” of white people by looking satirically at traditional family values perpetuated through TV shows at this time
The antagonist of this skit was no other than Dave Chappelle himself playing the stereotypical “Uncle Tom” Milkman. He delivers milk while secretly and purposefully “getting off” by his endless freedom to call this white family “Niggar” and coupling his wisecracks with black stereotypes reflected off the “whitest” of white families, whose last name just happen to be “Niggar”. Various black stereotypes were brought up in this skit including that blacks loved pork, where lazy, good athletes, and don’t pay bills on time or not at all.
This satirical skit is based solely off of blatantly marked identities expressed implicitly through characters choice words, body language and tone. For example, when the father of the white girl was told by his wife that his daughter was going on a date with the “nigger boy” from school, his reply was “oh no!” He implies with every body language and facial expression that he is in complete shock, fear, and disgust. The humor comes when a wave of relief overtakes him when he discovers that Timmy Niggar is not really a “Niggar”! Discovering that Timmy Niggar is white associated with his sigh of relief and comfort confirms the audience suspicions of racism and bias against interracial dating. With his sigh of relief he holds his daughters hand and everything is “okay” and all is right now that his daughter is safe from being “turned out” by some black guy and the having the risk of someone of color infiltrate there nice and white home.
Another scene that really stood out to me was the scene where Timmy Nigger and the black Milkman are both at a restaurant awaiting there table along with there dates. The server yells “party of niggars?” Any person in this situation would be in an uproar but only because Timmy’s last name happens to be Niggar, it is alright and everyone shares a good laugh. The laughter in this scene is all at the expense of perpetuating deeply rooted racial slanders and stigmas of the N-word in which during this era was very real and in no way shape or form looked at in such a comical way. Social norms and values of today compared with those of the past always create room for reflection both comical and shameful. All socially constructed norms and values are relative to the time and era in which they were present. Anything in style or deemed acceptable today may not necessarily be acceptable 10 years from now. Social norms and values fluxuate like fads, so where as segregation in America was the norm during the early 1900’s, it is definitely not the case for 2010. This can be compared to other fads like bell bottoms and afros, they were all relative to there time period.
The Chappelle Show has long been one of my favorite and beloved TV shows, and I was very disheartened when the show came to an end. In his skits he highlighted stereotypes and social inconsistencies and left interpretation completely in the hands and discretion of his audience. However he could not help but to feel frustrated with the people unwilling to look beyond the surface of his comedy to see that he was addressing some real issues within American society today. Anyone could look at the “Niggar family” skit and find criticism about its excessive use of the N-word to get laughs out of shock value, but the deeper element of this skit was exposing the inconsistencies of the social norms of American society 50 years ago. He did this in a way of reversing the roles of the oppressed and the oppressors, for a moment to expose and shine on the moral and ethical corruptions in our society during the 1950’s. Applying the law of ethics to social norms and values within society you would be amazed and humored at the inconsistencies that we would find in not only this skit but also in the present regarding issues of public health care, abortion and gay marriage…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7iemlsT6xc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7iemlsT6xc
Sources:
Lull, James. "Hegemony".
Brown, Adriane. "Multiculturism". Womens Studies 230.
