Stay Connected
Atlanta Black Star/List
List

8 Celebrities Who Spoke Out Against Black Entertainers in Drag

By | Published on March 25, 2014
CommentsComments (9) Add as a preferred source on Google i
Photo: cc.com

Photo: cc.com

Dave Chappelle

Comedian Dave Chappelle famously pushed the topic of feminization of the Black male to the forefront of Black Hollywood’s consciousness when he sat down with TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey in 2010. Chappelle had just returned from his Africa trip after his $50 million dollar abandonment of his namesake sketch comedy show.

The trip and the walk-out were signs to the public that he was unraveling, and for this reason many wrote his claims off.  But recently, people are taking note of his revelation.

“I’m a conspiracy theorist to a degree,”  he said. “I connect dots that maybe shouldn’t be connected, but certain dots, like when I see that they put every Black man in the movies in a dress at some point in their career, I be connecting that, like, why all these brothers gotta wear a dress?”

Chapelle candidly shared during the interview that while on the set of a movie, he was asked to portray a male prostitute and told he would be required to wear a dress.

Chapelle adamantly opposed it, standing firm on his belief that Black men could be both entertaining and marketable without having to wear a dress at some point in their careers.

Subscribe To The ABS Newsletter — Get our stories in your inbox.

Independent journalism still matters.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Give once Give monthly Support another way

Latest from Atlanta Black Star

Back to top