Black comedy's revolutionary potential is strongest when it ignores the other eyes upon it—or, as Collins puts it, "Black comedy that primarily serves Black audiences." Where Bennett errs, however, is in holding up the era of crossover appeal as the apex of Black comic achievement.
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Morrison is one of the incredible thinkers and theorists of racism as a pathology. And when she describes what it is to be racist, she's very insistent that this is a problem of the racist. This isn't actually a problem of the black person.
Namwali Serpell — Fresh Air
You can spend all your time trying to prove that we are humans, that we had a civilization, that we have art, that we have culture. But it's a distraction because there's always going to be one more thing. And actually, the problem is not us. The problem is the racist who has no other way of feeling full, no other way of having integrity other than putting someone else down.
Toni Morrison — Fresh Air
There was a time when our party was a thing that we voted for, and, you know, we felt psychologically connected to the party. The party wins, we feel good. If the party loses, we feel bad. But there's still all these other parts of our identity that we have that are linked to our, you know, sense of self-esteem and our place in the world.
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