What the fuck is juice?

 

Food regimes are different for different racialized groups. White people in the U.S. have a much better chance to be granted access to better food than black people. This comedy sketch is one of Dave Chappelle's many satirical commentaries on racial inequality in the U.S. I think that he is not only the funniest man to ever live, he is also way better at making commentary on race, inequality, power and many other cultural criticisms in the form of comedy than people like, say, George Carlin was. As opposed to someone like Carlin, who was funny but still very sober and serious, Chappelle will have you in stitches but leave you thinking seriously about what he says after. 

I think one of the best parts is when he mentions the Sunny D commercial and how the black kid in the commercial is more interested in the purple stuff. Once again, this is quite funny, but this is a racial knowledge, a signifier that Chapelle identifies within a split second frame of a commercial. It is one that so many people can identify with in his audience, and show it by simply laughing and applauding. This is a comment on segregation and contemporary racism are both less apparent and more pervasive, that although a white person watching the commercial might not think the only black kid, the obligatory black kid, might be interested in the "drank" not because he likes it more but because he would have grown up drinking it. This is a result of colour blindness. Chappelle does a great job of white parody, something severely lacking in popular mainstream comedy. 

On the topic of "drank," as one may observe from the link above, it is not just a symbol of racialization, segregation and food regimes in a nutritional sense. Purple drank is also a drug, a homemade mixture that is both potent and potentially dangerous if done wrong. Segregation can also be reflected in one's access to intoxicants. Although it may not be the most popular or considered legitimate subject, the term "designer drug" did not come out of nowhere. Purple drank certainly is not high purity cocaine. It is a cheap way to get high/drunk and is used by people who don't have the money to buy good drugs and booze. It originates in the United States, and it becomes a symbol not only of racism but one that attracts racism by inviting the colonial white mind to say: "Look what they use to get intoxicated, how uncivilized".