My initial thoughts on Dave Chappelle's "The Closer"

Ol' Hobbs's Monday Musings

"...Mathematics, natural science, laws, arts, even morality do not completely fill the soul; there is always a space left over reserved for pure and speculative reason, the emptiness of which prompts us to seek in vagaries, buffooneries, and mysticism for what seems to be employment and entertainment, but what actually is mere pastime undertaken in order to deaden the troublesome voice of reason..." Immanuel Kant, German philosopher, circa 1783

Comedian Dave Chappelle's "The Closer"

With a nod to Immanuel Kant's quote from his book Prolegomena that in our pursuit to better understand the world around us through reason that,"the emptiness...prompts us to seek in vagaries, buffooneries, and mysticism for what seems to be employment and entertainment," count me among those who have enjoyed satire and comedy as devices to further ponder the critical issues of our day albeit through uproarious laughter.

In fact, through my 49 years of living, some of my favorite comedians, including Dick Gregory, Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, and yes, Dave Chappelle, have used their art and at times, their most ribald rhetoric, to drive points home about white supremacy, racism, and the plight of Blacks within the Diaspora. Rhetoric, I remind, that has often cut deeper and reached far more people than most essayists, novelists, and journalists could ever hope to engage. 

Last week, Chappelle, Netflix's $100 million dollar man, released "The Closer" and in the time since, a spirited debate has emerged as to whether this latest special is an example of his comedic genius—or whether it is hate speech cloaked in humor? Having watched it twice to ensure that I didn’t miss any vantage points, I shall refrain from giving spoilers so that my readers who have yet to watch it can do so free from my editorial perspective. But I will say that as a writer who is practically impossible to shock, and as one who can quickly morph from the profound to the profane in my informal commentary, that Chappelle actually made me cringe at times helps me to better understand why some within both the Jewish and Transgender/LGBTQ communities have condemned him and called for Netflix to cancel the special.

And yet, Chappelle also had me laughing at certain parts to the point of giving out of breath, a fact that leads the writer within me to ponder, once more, that the beauty of any art is that its true merit—or lack thereof—is within the eye of the beholder.

Now, where I remain concerned is that, as Chappelle acknowledges, that white supremacy remains the gollum in the room that impacts race, sexual orientation, and gender issues. Such is the underpinning of my disdain for what I call the "misery Olympics," that seemingly perpetual battle among those most impacted by systemic white supremacy who niggle about whose suffering has been the worst—as opposed to recognizing that suffering, from time immemorial, is relative. Such is why in my own artistic lane, I strive to stay squarely focused on exorcising the white supremacy gollums—while supporting all other marginalized souls in America.  

Later this month, I will write an in-depth critique of "The Closer" with quotes, but for now, I implore my readers to watch it and feel free to drop me a line about your thoughts. 

National Coming Out Day/Indigenous People Day

So, because many of us were totally brainwashed as children with the whole "in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue" poem that was conditioning us to accept European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere and its attendant horrors in the enslavement of Black Africans and genocide of Natives, some of my readers will celebrate today as "Columbus Day."

Well, not Ol' Hobbs—to Hell with Columbus, his crew, and all who followed him to pillage and plunder in Africa and the Americas!

However, the Hobbservation Point does acknowledge Indigenous People's Day and National Coming Out Day, the latter a commemoration that notes the tedious journey that many of our LGBTQ kin and friends endure in the closet all because of the intolerance that their family members and communities display in their biological designs or lifestyle choices. 

R. Kelly's music sales increasing

Speaking of the proverbial closet, R&B music star R. Kelly, convicted last month of running a criminal enterprise through which he molested girls and boys/young men alike, saw "double-digit gains in streams and triple-digit growth in sales in the week following his conviction” according to The Hill.

Now, there will be some Kelly fans who will enjoy his music for the rest of their lives because many have said on social media that they "separate the art from the artist."

Ok…

I also think that others may download songs not because they want to enjoy Kelly's hits, like "Trapped in the Closet," but because by listening anew, perhaps they are looking for clues to see how so many may have missed the perverted monster that he was described to be during his month long trial?

I can understand this latter rationale well because during my student days at Morehouse College, in Dr. Daniel Klenbort's Selected Topics in Modern European History course, we read Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" not because we admired that genocidal murderer, but to better understand the philosophical bent behind what ultimately led to the Holocaust—to help avoid a repeat of that miserable moment in world history.

An early copy of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf that my late father and fellow history buff, then Army Cpt. Charles Hobbs, purchased in Berlin while stationed at Munich, Germany in 1965.

Black Christian antipathy towards the LGBTQ community

As I wrote this past weekend on Facebook: "There are a whole bunch of Black folks in America who use religion and invoke the name of Jesus Christ to justify their disdain for the LGBTQ community with the very same passion that a whole bunch of white folks use religion and invoke the name of Jesus Christ to justify their disdain for—and false sense of superiority to—Blacks and other people of color..."

Allow me a few moments to take you back to 1978, my first year in first grade at Apple Grove Elementary School in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Each day, my sister Traci, who was in 6th grade, and I would walk about a quarter mile up the hill from our house (sometimes through snow) to the bus stop to await transport to school. One friend of mine who lived two streets over, let us call him "Tony" to protect his identity, was a grade or two ahead of me and also rode the same bus every day.

Now, on mornings when temperatures were conducive, the boys my age would play football in the street, wrestle, or rough house until we saw the bus turning the corner to pick us up. All of us with the exception of "Tony" who, each day, would be with the girls playing those sing along hand clap games or, one of his true gifts, either jumping rope double dutch style—or turning the two ropes for the girls who were double dutching!

Regrettably, I also remember how a pair of older boys in my sister's class, let's call them the Roberts Brothers for anonymity's sake, would sometimes toss the ball around to us younger boys while separately telling us "don't be no 'sissy’ or ‘punk' like that Tony." 

Now, six-year-old "Chuckie" was far from worldy; in my then sheltered existence, I hadn't the slightest clue about sex, sexual orientation, or pejorative slurs, but I was bright enough to deduce from context clues that the Roberts Brothers were picking on Tony simply for being different. I was comparatively too small and timid to vocally clap back at the Roberts Brothers, but thinking back, I have fond remembrances of talking with Tony about Star Wars or books that we were reading—perhaps as a form of defiance to the Roberts Brothers’ not so subtle line in the sand where some (not all) of the younger boys, seeking their approval, treated Tony like a pariah of sorts. Looking back, that I was never the target of one of the Roberts's "why you talking to that sissy" barbs is no surprise, because Traci, and my other two sisters who were at Lord Baltimore Junior High, were known Hell raisers who would defend their baby brother without even a second thought (until I was old enough to become the protector and not the protected) 😆. 

The Hobbs Clan circa ‘79 in our backyard on Easter Day in Maryland

Still, my experience with Tony was a mere prelude of what would become a fact that I have witnessed time and again along my educational, professional, and parochial journeys, that of Black people treating our own people within the LGBTQ community with contempt instead of adhering to one of my favorite adages, which is to "live and let live."

Not to mention the fact that, if God is all powerful and "doesn't make mistakes," which I do believe, and that my friend Tony—like countless others—displayed his own identity or sexual proclivities as early as seven years old, then perhaps it's way past time for Christians to talk about the very simple logic that the mistake free, all-powerful God wonderfully made Tony just as He wished Tony to be?

Black Historical Hobbservations

In the picture above, depicted clockwise are Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Bayard Rustin, and Alvin Ailey. Each a critical figure in American history through their work in literature, philosophy, civil rights, and entertainment; each an icon of Black culture...each a man...each a strong Black man...Each a strong Black homosexual man.

I am thankful that these brilliant Black homosexual men impacted the world in such a way that life for ALL Black men and women was the better because of their talents, their art, and their passion for living. 

Lest we forget...

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