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Dave Chappelle responded to the controversy with the Netflix stand-up special “The Closer,” which has been criticized for promoting bigotry towards transgender people, by sending a message. five minute video clip He denied to Instagram on Monday that he had been invited to speak to the streaming service’s transgender employees and declined.
“This isn’t true,” he said in a video taken during a weekend performance in Nashville. “If they had invited me, I would have accepted. Although I am confused about what to talk about. I said what I said and boy, I heard what you said. God, how could it not? You said you want a safe working environment on Netflix. Looks like I’m the only one who can’t go to the office anymore.”
Controversies over Mr Chappelle’s special have placed Netflix at the center of a conversation involving transphobia, free speech, and employee activism. Last week, a group of Netflix employees in Los Angeles organized a march. Some employees working virtually also shut down their laptops in solidarity.
Hours before the protest, Netflix released a statement saying it understood the “deep wound it caused” and acknowledged that “we have more work to do, both within Netflix and within our content.”
Addressing the transgender community in his video, Mr Chappelle said: “I’m more than willing to give you an audience, but you’re not going to invite me. I will not bow to anyone’s request.”
Mr Chappelle said he has three conditions for any meeting: attendees must watch the entirety of “The Closer”, choose the time and place for themselves, and “acknowledge that Hannah Gadsby is not funny”.
Mrs. Gadsby, a comedian with successful Netflix specials, Netflix CEO criticizes Ted Sarandos For defending Mr Chappelle this month. Mr Sarandos had appealed to Ms Gadsby in a statement defending Mr Chappelle’s right to artistic expression.
Mr Chappelle also said that a documentary in which he chronicled a series of stand-up shows he hosted in the summer of 2020 in a cornfield near his home in Yellow Springs, Ohio, failed to find distribution due to controversy over “The Closer.” Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, the film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival for the reopening of Radio City Music Hall in June.
Mr Chappelle said he will air the documentary himself in 10 American cities next month. (The Instagram post lists ten dates in different cities.)
“You have to answer the question, did I cancel or not?” he said before putting down the microphone and stepping off the stage.
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