Louis CK isn't really that funny to begin with. Not in my opinion. Dave Chappelle and Jim Jefferies kick his ass any day, anywhere. This video, however, isn't just "not funny" but its offensive and pisses me off. He blatantly exercises white privilege in order to justify using a word that signifies hundreds of years of oppression. CK takes this word and instead of finding a way to make a funny statement out of the inherent wrongness of the word and its historical backpack, he pulls a classic white move and tries to make it funny by telling people how to trivialize the word. White people HATE giving these words up, instead they find ways to "take the power out of them".
Stating at the end of the clip that "that nigger made the shit out of my coffee" in reference to his most likely white hipster barista has no apparent function in terms of anything approaching a critique of racism. It seems like CK is trivializing it. White privilege provides the opportunity to be able to take a step back and make trivial something a racialized person would not be able to find the distance to do. I think back to "Race is a 4 Letter Word" where the fallout in class left us admitting that we have no place commenting on identities that we cannot empathize with. Sympathy for the victims of historical and systemic racism does not include, in my opinion, constitute the right to make light of the word nigger.
Some may take issue with me on this, saying that I don't get his humor or that I don't get the context of this clip. If anyone can provide a compelling argument to contradict mine, by all means I will accept defeat, but until then this clip remains racist to me. It not only shows a blatant abuse of white privilege, showing CK's lack of McIntosh style reflection on invisible privilege and perhaps why he doesn't understand the connotations of the word nigger, but an alienating disregard for white people who are ready and willing to reflect on such things. CK could be a huge sarcasm I don't get, but trivializing the word nigger is not to me in any way sarcastic - its an affront to great sarcasm that comedians have spent their careers perfecting and often making potent and relevant social commentaries with. Of course, CK was the guy who said that "everything's amazing and nobody is happy". Anyone who has this baby boomer style blissful ignorance to racism, such that I have observed at enough gatherings at work, with family, and otherwise can't be expected to understand why trivializing the word nigger might be a big problem for many people watching his act.
I don't think that CK is trying to be rude by talking about the "n-word". personally I hate the word and I do not use it but i get what CK is trying to say about how when someone says "n-word" you hear it in your head. I do like how you brought up white privilege though because I dont think i would have thought about it as that otherwise. I think that CK is just trying to make lite the situation that a lot of people use that word in different ways and it has such a negative connotation around it. i dont know i think hes funny sometimes.
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