Black Power: 6 Gems About Race We Need To Thank Chris Rock For

December 9, 2014 - 8:57 pm by Camille Augustin TWITTER

A few views of Chris Rock standup and you'd be convinced he wrote your life story. Ahead of his self-directed flick Top Five (which he also stars in) releasing Dec. 12, Chris Rock ran the press circuit, keeping it one hundred every time. From his interviews on The Breakfast Club to The Hollywood Reporter, Rock put the funny business aside and commented on race relations in Hollywood and America. Flip through the most recent stand-out quotables from Chris above.

Photo Credit: Instagram/chrisrock

On Howard Stern discussing if movie studios are worried whether white people will understand his jokes: "The studios a lot of time are just scared: 'Are white people going to get this? Are white people going to get that? They're so scared of what white people are going to get, they take all the ingredients out." Photo Credit: Getty Images

On Power 105.1's The Breakfast Club discussing Eric Garner and Mike Brown decisions: "Nothing I say is going to be new and revolutionary. I don't like to be boring. The real question is 'How come no white guys ever get shot?' It doesn't appear to be that common." [videoembed size="full_width" alignment="center"][/videoembed]

With Grantland on having a responsibility as a black actor to represent the community in movies: "I definitely made a point to tell Leslie to tell me to 'Stay black' in one scene. No one tells Brad Pitt to “Stay white.” “Ben Affleck, stay white.” What the fuck are you talking about, “stay white”? I just tried to do a movie in a realistic tone. People always think, What were you trying to say? I’m not trying to say nothing, I’m just trying to entertain people, trying to make things that don’t bore me. Trying to make things that feel authentic. Trying to make a movie that I haven’t seen. In a tone I haven’t seen. That’s what I’m trying to do." Read the full story here. Photo Credit: Getty Images

With Vulture on racial relations in America: "Here’s the thing. When we talk about race relations in America or racial progress, it’s all nonsense. There are no race relations. White people were crazy. Now they’re not as crazy. To say that black people have made progress would be to say they deserve what happened to them before. ... So, to say Obama is progress is saying that he’s the first black person that is qualified to be president. That’s not black progress. That’s white progress. There’s been black people qualified to be president for hundreds of years. If you saw Tina Turner and Ike having a lovely breakfast over there, would you say their relationship’s improved? Some people would. But a smart person would go, “Oh, he stopped punching her in the face.” It’s not up to her. Ike and Tina Turner’s relationship has nothing to do with Tina Turner. Nothing. It just doesn’t. The question is, you know, my kids are smart, educated, beautiful, polite children. There have been smart, educated, beautiful, polite black children for hundreds of years. The advantage that my children have is that my children are encountering the nicest white people that America has ever produced. Let’s hope America keeps producing nicer white people." Read the full story here. Photo Credit: Martin Schoeller

With Rolling Stone on getting black material on Saturday Night Live: "It wasn't that it was difficult to get anything black on the show – it was difficult to get anything black on it that didn't deal specifically with race. You know? That's the thing. It's just like how there's not a lot of race stuff in Top Five, but it's as black as any movie you'll see in the next 15 years – it's blacker than The Butler or the Jackie Robinson movie, it's blacker at its core. But it's not about race. It's really black, the way George Clinton's really black, like the Ohio Players – "Fire," "Sweet Sticky Thing" – is just some black shit. That shit is black. Like a white man has nothing to do with this shit." Read the full story here. Photo Credit: Getty Images

With the The Hollywood Reporter on comparing Hollywood to the NBA: "It's a white industry. Just as the NBA is a black industry. I'm not even saying it's a bad thing. It just is. And the black people they do hire tend to be the same person. That person tends to be female and that person tends to be Ivy League. And there's nothing wrong with that. As a matter of fact, that's what I want for my daughters. But something tells me that the life my privileged daughters are leading right now might not make them the best candidates to run the black division of anything. And the person who runs the black division of a studio should probably have worked with black people at some point in their life." Read the full story here. Photo Credit: The Hollywood Reporter

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