Privileged to Be Here

By Ted Resnikoff

Privilege

Privilege
Where inequality exists dialog is hard. We re-post an excerpt of this opinion piece by Francie Latour on the work of the comedian louis C.K. addressing White Privilege.

Some Can Laugh

Point of View by Francie Latour   Wise guy – Wrapped in louis C.K.’s stand-up material are powerful insights on race. About 27 minutes into “Chewed Up,” his 2008 special recorded at Boston’s Berklee Performance Center, the stand-up comic Louis C.K. starts apologizing for being so negative. After all, he admits, he’s got a lot going for him. “I’m healthy, I’m relatively young, I’m white — which, thank God for that [expletive], boy,” he says, in one of his classic bits on race. “That is a huge leg up, are you kidding me?” As laughter erupts, C.K. — the schlubby, middle-aged dad from Newton hailed as the funnyman of his generation — proceeds to explain to his largely white audience that, even though there is nothing about white people that makes them better, being white in America is obviously better. “Here’s how great it is to be white,” he says. “I could get in a time machine and go to any time, and it would be [expletive] awesome when I get there,” he says. “That is exclusively a white privilege. Black people can’t [mess] with time machines! A black guy in a time machine is like, ‘Hey, if it’s before 1980, no thank you. I don’t wanna go.’ ” And there you have it: one of the most clear-eyed analyses of white privilege ever to reach mainstream America, wrapped in a three-minute comedy routine with a Showtime premiere and 7 million-plus hits on YouTube. I’m not a huge follower of stand-up. But I am a person who has spent a lot of time reading and writing about race. After recently stumbling onto some of C.K.’s recent routines, it occurred to me that with nothing more than a microphone and some jokes, C.K. may be doing more to raise consciousness about the subtle workings of race, power, and privilege than a conference full of academics and social justice activists. If race scholars preach to the choir, C.K. — with his everyman persona and mass appeal — is speaking to a wide swath of America. And he’s making them laugh. Read the full text of Francie Latour's opinion piece here. Read related stories on Blue Boat: Where's the Love? how white middle-class youth have the privilege to make mistakes others do not. My Favorite Links on Race by Carey McDonald. Questionable Reflections on the fine line between humor and insensitivity. Protested, Arrested – Not a Hero: why protesting is easier for some than it is for others.