Dave Chappelle | 8:46

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“We‘re not desperate for heroes in the Black community. Any nigga that survives this nightmare [called ‘America’] is my goddamn hero.”
- Dave Chappelle

America is hard for the Black man to beat. Structural racism makes it more like a real-life amalgam of a puzzle, riddle, and first-person mission/quest video game. If you succeed, it’s despite the unfair obstacles. It’s not easy to get great schooling. It’s not easy to get a great job. It’s not easy to dodge jail. It’s not easy to reside in a nice neighborhood. It’s not easy to live.

I think about that pretty often nowadays. As a culture, Black people, we lift up those who’ve “made it,” because they’ve essentially beaten the system. And every night one of us lives to see another day with our families, jobs, and sanity intact, it’s a big middle finger to the creators of America, the Game.

But with that said, how happy should I be to live in a place that’s not designed with my human interests in mind? Sometimes life feels like that one seen in many Bruce Lee movies where enemies spill into the room. They fall in from the roof. They bang through the front door and crash through the windows. They jog down the stairs. And Bruce takes it all in, gets in his fighting stance and knows he has to do what he has to do: Beat 71 asses just to see tomorrow.

I don’t know, y’all. I’m just talking. I love this country. I’m not going anywhere. I’m in this toxic relationship with it. I hope it gets better. Things are getting interesting. But I think about this Chris Rock joke a lot. And I see Chappelle’s pain here. This shit is heavy.

8:46 is right on time.