GLAAD, the gay and lesbian anti-defamation organization, posted a harsh rejoinder. And this is precisely the disparity that I wish to discuss,” he said at one point in the special, characteristically throwing in the racial slur.Ĭhappelle said he sided with anti-trans radical feminists, and bragged about beating up a lesbian he approached in a club who later wanted to sell the story to TMZ, saying he had “whupped the toxic masculinity out of that b****.” “In our country you can shoot and kill a n***** but you better not hurt a gay person. In what some perceived as a comeback commentary, Chappelle seemed to double down in defense of previous things he had said that offended LGBTQ communities, especially transgender individuals and he accused the critics of being thin-skinned, with racial overtones.
“Pretty much as soon as he graduated from Ellington and went out into the professional world full time, he never forgot the training he got at Ellington, and was committed to supporting the school in whatever way necessary,” Harris said in an interview.īut then came the premier of “The Closer,” Chappelle’s latest special for Netflix. Tia Powell Harris, a former artistic affairs director at Ellington, said this was all so typical of Dave Chappelle, and of the school, too.
Chappelle had promised to personally donate $100,000. And what’s more, an auditorium in the school would be named in his honor. public school-one of the few arts schools where most of the students are of color. This occasion, two days before Thanksgiving, would cap a $1.5 million fundraising drive for the D,C. He’d returned before, often bringing along financial support and celebrities to inspire others as the school had inspired him. It would not be the first time comedian Dave Chappelle would come back to Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, which had put him on the path to success and stardom.