Dave Chappelle took the stage in The Closer for a moment of reflection in a refreshing, yet unorthodox blend of the insightful and the incendiary. In a special the comedian dubs as potentially his last, Chappelle opines on the controversy he’s garnered during a career filled with accusations of racism, sexism, and homophobia. From a pure comedy standpoint, it’s not nearly as delivering on the laughs as previous specials. But Chappelle is nothing if not an evolving creature, and what The Closer lacks in quick-fire hits (and there are plenty of them, let’s be clear), it delivers in thought-provoking storytelling.
Near the end of the special, Chappelle recounts a story about his friend Daphne Dorman, who died by suicide in 2019. According to Chappelle, after he questioned Dorman about being trans, Dorman told him that “I don’t need you to understand me. I just need you to believe that I’m having a human experience.” To which Chappelle responds, “I believe you, because it takes one to know one.” According to him, “Empathy is not gay. Empathy is not black. Empathy is bisexual. It must go both ways.”
There are things that could be said about American Christians’ ability (or lack thereof) to understand the idea that lived experience matters, but suffice it to say that Chappelle’s final point is correct. Empathy from one person to another must go both ways if it is to result in real human connection. And sometimes that real human connection involves being able to laugh about the divisions between us, like differences between races and genders.
The reason Chappelle has such a massive following is not merely because he’s perhaps one of the greatest comedians of all time. He has a massive following because he has honed the ability, over a decades-long career to cross lines like race and gender in comedy. This is a good thing. If we cannot laugh, without hatred or malice, about the things that divide us (or the things we *think* that divide us), we are weakening empathy, not strengthening it.
The Closer is Chappelle’s way of saying that when we don’t take ourselves so seriously, we can take other people and their lived experiences more seriously. Does he make the point perfectly? No one ever does.
We are called to be in the world, and part of being in the world is understanding that we are all equally engaged in the struggle to find meaning and purpose. And because we’re fallen creatures, we often struggle with the temptation to find meaning and purpose by demeaning other people’s meaning and purpose. It is so easy to become “of the world” as a response to the chaos and frustration of being “in the world.” The fact that this is so easy might be an indicator as to why Christ specifically exhorted us not to do it.
Lived experience matters, and there are a great number of people who have never felt the comfort of having anyone understand their human experience. It’s to these suffering souls that the church of God is called. Being in the world involves being willing to reach out to those people with the same love and empathy that we would want them to show us, were those roles reversed. But more importantly, we should be every bit as unapologetic about the truth we have to offer as we are about the empathy and love by which we give it. Yes, there’s a Christian message to be gained from The Closer. Shocker.
The views and opinions expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the values and beliefs of Cogitare Magazine, nor of Grove City College.
This article was first published in the Grove City College Collegian.
