Chris Rock Makes an Excellent Point About Wokeness

I have to confess that I have a huge crush on Chris Rock. 

That said, I really wasn't even a fan of his until I saw his Selective Outrage Netflix special a few years ago. It came about at a time in my life when I needed some laughs, and I felt it delivered. I've since gone back and watched most of his body of work from over the decades, including his Saturday Night Live appearances, most of his movies, his old talk show, his older stand-up specials, and even a lot of past interviews.  

For what it's worth, he's matured beautifully through the years, and I love how he isn't trying to impress anyone these days, or so it seems. He calls things as he sees them. And while I doubt he and I would see eye-to-eye on all things politics, he's the kind of Democrat I don't mind having a conversation with because he comes across as fairly honest and isn't afraid of criticizing his own side of the aisle or admitting when it's defeated. He also sees people as people... not elephants and donkeys.  

That's exactly what he did last week in an interview with David Marchese of The New York Times. Rock has a new movie, which actually comes out today — Friday, October 9 — called Misty Green. He wrote, directed, and starred in it, and the previews look excellent. He's also been making the media rounds, promoting it. During this particular interview, he described exactly what's wrong with wokeness today.     

"The problem with quote, unquote, wokeness — and don’t get me wrong, it is great that marginalized people have a voice; it is great to advocate for anybody that feels marginalized," Rock began, admitting that he's not against the concept in general. "But the problem is we’re in the Old Testament right now, and the Old Testament has no forgiveness. The Old Testament didn’t work, so they had to write a remix called the New Testament." 

I didn't quite understand the biblical analogy — either that or he's not getting the relationship between the Old and New Testaments  wrong — but I fully understood what he said next:  "The problem is when you institutionalize it."  

He used the Salem Witch Trials as an example.  

"The Salem witch hunts. I’m sure the first three witches they caught were actually f***ing witches," he said. "But then you open up a witch office and now you’ve got to start lying. Now you’ve gotta f***ing make s*** up because you’ve got overhead. You’ve got to justify the witch hunters’ f***ing pensions."

His point is that this country didn't just go woke in recent years. We went woke and then turned it into bureaucracy. And now we have to create more targets to keep those offices open and fully staffed. 

Again, Rock said he's glad some of it happened because some deserving people did get some good things out of it, but he basically suggested that this should have happened from ordinary accountability, not permanent enforcement. 

He likened it to faith and friendship. The comedian said he has a friend who he wasn't going to name who "might have gotten canceled." He said people ask him all the time why he's still friends with that person. His response to that? "If you’re only friends with your friends when they’re good, they’re not your friends." He also reminded us that God forgives.  

Again, Rock is a liberal Democrat who doesn't like Donald Trump and does see some value in efforts we, on this side of the aisle, might consider woke. But he's not afraid to admit that his side took it, institutionalized it, and made it so that it runs on outrage. 

If we must share the country with leftists, I'll take more like him.   

I'll leave you with the trailer for Misty Green. I hope to check it out soon. 

Editor's Note: The Democrat Party has been infected by socialism, and it's spreading FAST. Democrats are claiming there's nothing to worry about, but we know the truth.

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