Dave Chappelle and the price of success for a Black man

Comedian Dave Chappelle was featured in interviews on the Oprah Winfrey Show and Inside the Actor's Studio in two weeks, and both his remarks and the reaction are thought-provoking. Chappelle was doing the press to explain his sudden retreat to Africa last year in the middle of production for his hit Comedy Central show, and to promote a concert film that will be released next month.

Chappelle said two things of particular note in the interviews: first, that his sudden exit last year wasn't the result of drugs or mental illness -- but the response of a man who worried that his newfound wealth was coming at the price of his soul. "I felt like a prostitute or something," he said, adding that he became convinced that some of his racial humor was "socially irresponsible."

The second noteworthy item was his charge that black male comic actors are being pressured to masquerade as women in order to strike box-office gold:

"I am a conspiracy theorist to a degree. I connect dots that maybe shouldn't be connected. But certain dots, like when I see they put every black man in the movies in a dress at some point in their career. ... I am like, 'Why these brothers got to wear a dress?'"

Black America Web's story on Chappelle included this approving comment from Tennessee psychologist Samella Abdullah:

“It felt very good to see that Dave Chappelle was conscionable,” Abdullah said, pointing that many black actors fail to earn acclaim until they take roles that are demeaning and stereotypical. “There seemed to be a spark to his conscious awareness.”

Whatever one think of Chappelle's argument, (and the New York Times seemed to think that Oprah was skeptical), the points he made about the price of black success are worth further exploration. In subsequent posts, I'll present some of the reading I've been doing on this subject, as well as some nagging questions about our culture and its media representations of gender.