One month into Donald Trump’s second term, not a lot of people can follow Kamala Harris at the NAACP Image Awards, but Dave Chappelle can and did tonight.
Receiving the President’s Award during Saturday’s 56th NAACP Image Awards not long after the former Vice President was given the Chairman’s Award, the 2019 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor recipient put his honor and the venerated organization itself in the sharpest context and held it all together masterfully with a sharp streaming zinger.
“You know, look, I won a lot of awards recently, but this one tonight is probably the most special award I’ve ever gotten, because it’s from this institution that represents these people, us, people of color, black people,” he began.
“My god brother is here tonight, Ben Jealous,” Chappelle told a packed Pasadena Civic Auditorium. “Ben used to be the president of the NAACP, and I asked him, I said, ‘What do you think? What do you think I should say tonight?’ And Ben sent me a whole speech.”
“But what was important, he said, in 1915, the movie Birth of a Nation came out, and had a hideous depiction of African Americans,” the comedian added. “And by 1927, the NAACP had opened its first office in Hollywood. And from then, 100 years ago to this very night, they have been chipping away at this industry so that people like me can stand up in front of people and tell my story or our stories each and every artist in here, every opportunity we get, every time we’re on camera on stage, we just keep chipping away at this monster of a machine.”
Of course, Chappelle being the master of delivery and the kicker that he is, that’s not where it ended.
“But tonight, man, tonight, I feel invigorated because all my Netflix checks clear,” he said to a huge laugh from the A-lister crowd.
Among that crowd was director Stanley Lathan, who helmed everything from Sanford & Son to Sesame Street to BET’s Real Husbands of Hollywood, and everything in-between as well as producing and directing a number of Chappell’s own specials on Netflix and elsewhere, which the honoree noted in a shout out to the Peabody Award winner.
But it was that Netflix joke that held it all together for the controversial and admired Chappelle’s words tonight at the NAACP Image Awards.
“I don’t know anybody any work right now,” he said out of the Netflix checks comments, pivoting to a significantly more serious tone.
“Every time you see me, just know I’m only up there because I want to be right up there,” Chappelle emphasized with the audience in the venue and those watching on CBS and BET on the East Coast. “And I hope, I hope all of us who work in this industry feel strong and inspired and not discouraged, especially because this is a very difficult time right now. And your institution is, sadly, more relevant than it’s been in a long time. We got a lot of work to do, but it feels good to know that we’re not in it alone, that we got each other. And remember, community is everything.”
In that latter vein, Chappelle declared: “Shout out to everybody who lost their home or was displaced from their home, even for a time. Everybody look Don’t ever be afraid to lean on each other. My father told me a phrase that got me all the way to where I am today. He said, Whenever you mess up or you feel like you can’t get up. He said, You remember these words because they’re magic words. And I said, What’s the words, dad? And he’s saying, whoops, let’s keep it moving. Y’all, let’s keep it moving.”
