Quote: Nicer White People

Chris Rock:

Here’s the thing. When we talk about race relations in America or racial progress, it’s all nonsense. There are no race relations. White people were crazy. Now they’re not as crazy. To say that black people have made progress would be to say they deserve what happened to them before.

Right. It’s ridiculous.

So, to say Obama is progress is saying that he’s the first black person that is qualified to be president. That’s not black progress. That’s white progress. There’s been black people qualified to be president for hundreds of years. If you saw Tina Turner and Ike having a lovely breakfast over there, would you say their relationship’s improved? Some people would. But a smart person would go, “Oh, he stopped punching her in the face.” It’s not up to her. Ike and Tina Turner’s relationship has nothing to do with Tina Turner. Nothing. It just doesn’t. The question is, you know, my kids are smart, educated, beautiful, polite children. There have been smart, educated, beautiful, polite black children for hundreds of years. The advantage that my children have is that my children are encountering the nicest white people that America has ever produced. Let’s hope America keeps producing nicer white people.

It’s about white people adjusting to a new reality?

Owning their actions. Not even their actions. The actions of your dad. Yeah, it’s unfair that you can get judged by something you didn’t do, but it’s also unfair that you can inherit money that you didn’t work for.

This entry was posted in Race, racism and related issues. Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to Quote: Nicer White People

  1. Tommy says:

    This seems to undervalue of the efforts of black folks who took active efforts to ensure that white people became nicer by challenging racist beliefs etc. White people didn’t become ‘nicer’ by themselves, it took concerted efforts by the civil rights movement. I think it’s fair to describe that as ‘Black people making progress,’ in agitating for and succeeding in gaining recognition of their essential human dignity. Rock seems to think ‘black people making progress’ means black people getting better, which may be what some people believe, but probably isn’t how most people are using the phrase.

Comments are closed.