Chris Rock has some thoughts on race relations in America: they’re a myth.
In a wide-ranging cover interview with New York Magazine’s Frank Rich, the comedian and film director addressed race in the Obama era saying, “when we talk about race relations in America or racial progress, it’s all nonsense.”
Rock continues, “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.”
MORE: The One Battle Michael Brown’s Family Will Win
Rock has long been an outspoken on race, and race relations in America. In the interview, he compares the relationship between blacks and whites in America to Tina Turner’s abusive marriage to Ike Turner.
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.
Read the whole interview at New York
The Brief Newsletter
Read next: From ESSENCE’s Editor: Ferguson’s Emotional Aftermath
SPONSORED FINANCIAL CONTENT
