If you are familiar with the movie Aladdin, I am sure you can recall how the genie to human relationship works. The holder of the lamp is able to call on the trapped genie to grant three wishes, but once those three wishes are granted the genie must go back into the lamp until another person comes along and needs help.

In the movie, Aladdin is compassionate towards the genie and agrees to use his third wish to release him. Everything goes as planned until Aladdin has to decide between his own needs and the promise he made to the genie.

This is how Dave Chappelle treats Black LGBTQ people in his new Netflix special.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7AyFHUGbHw

One of the most viral moments of the special comes when Chappelle asks the LGBTQ community to release DaBaby (from what? I am not sure). He mentions the fact that DaBaby killed someone in a Wal-Mart and nothing happened to his career.

"Do you see where I'm going with this? In our country, you can shoot and kill a n***a, but you better not hurt a gay person's feelings."

At this point of the special, Black LGBTQ people are still inside of the lamp. Because if we were visible to Chappelle at this moment, he would know that this observation is flawed.

Earlier this year, the Human Rights Campaign released a report that noted that at the time, 38 transgender and gender-non conforming people had been murdered, most were Black and Latine trans women.

Sadly, 2021 has already seen at least 38 transgender or gender non-conforming people fatally shot or killed by other violent means. We say at least because too often these stories go unreported — or misreported. In previous years, the majority of these people were Black and Latinx transgender women. -HRC

Unironcally, Chappelle later mentions that he misses the gays of yesteryear, "the Stonewall n*ggas", because the LGBTQ people of now are too sensitive. He states this after admitting that he is jealous of the progress that LGBTQ people have made in such a short amount of time.

" We Blacks look at the gay community and we say, Damn, look at how well that movement is going! We have been trapped in this predicament for hundreds of years, how the f*ck are you making that kind of progress?"

Clearly, Black LGBTQ people are still in the lamp. Dave doesn't see us. If he did, he would know that this observation is flawed.

Dave detaches the Black queer person from our history. Black LGBTQ people were enslaved and are still experiencing racism in 2021. Black LGBTQ people have fought and continue to fight for the liberation of all Black people and LGBTQ people. All Dave had to do was think back to those "Stonewall n*ggas" that he claims he misses and respects, because two of the most known people from the Stonewall Uprising are Black! Marsha P. Johnson and Stormé DeLarverie. However, Chappelle does not mention them. Dave does not mention James Baldwin, Alain Locke, Bayard Rustin, Audre Lorde, Angela Davis or the founders of Black Lives Matter. Dave does not mention us, because he does not need us…at the moment.

Chappelle tells a joke about being tricked into being caught on camera yelling at a white woman and two white men. He approaches the white men and yells into the camera, "you a b*tch a*s n*gga!". Once he yells, Chappelle notices that the men have painted fingernails and says, "uh oh this fella's gay." One of the white men stands up and instead of fighting (as Chappelle had prepared for) he calls the police. This, Chappelle notes, is the major issue that he has with THAT community because, "Gay people are minorities until they need to be white again…" and then, "I am telling you right now a Black gay person would have never done that to me because a Black gay person knows when the police shows up they do not care who called them."

Boom. We must grant our first wish. Dave needed to see us. He needed to rub the lamp and call upon Black LGBTQ people. However, unlike his other observations this one was quick. He simply called us out of the lamp and immediately pushed us back in after his wish was granted. There was no story. No deep explanation. Just a simple command as he quickly shifted on to talking about a fight that he had with a lesbian that he assumed was a man.

Two of the most worrisome things to Dave Chappelle in this special are being told that he hates women and being told that he is transphobic.

In regards to hating women, Chappelle actually tells a joke that follows a pattern and a formula. Which demonstrates that he is aware of the nuance needed to make the observation.

A woman walked up to me and said…"you hate women" and that bothered me because she is not the first woman that has said that to me…what could I possibly be saying that would make these b*tches think I hate women?!

While you can debate if the joke is funny, it is clear the set up and the punch line make sense. The humor is supposed to be in the contradiction.

Dave even goes a step further with demonstrating his awareness when talking about women. He goes on to tell the story of his friend Ang, a Black woman, and her comments about white women at the Women's March.

Ang said, "I hope those white b*tches get tear gassed". There is a problem in that feminist movement isn't there? From the inception in America there has always been a racial component. When Susan B. Anthony has that meeting and Sojourner Truth…showed up all them white women asked Sojourner Truth not to speak. They didn't want to conflate the rights of women's rights and slave rights.

Wait! Is Dave Chappelle talking about the dangers of a non-intersectional feminist movement? After he just told jokes that erased Black LGBTQ people from the Civil Rights Movement, Stonewall, LGBTQ Rights and the current Black Rights Movement? How could that be?

At this point of the special, Black LGBTQ people are still inside of the lamp. Dave does not mention us, because he does not need us…at the moment.

When it comes to being called transphobic, Dave Chappelle reacts like you have probably seen several white people react in the past when they were called racist. He acts shocked and brings up his transgender friend.

To make a long joke short, Chappelle tells a story of a women that he meets in a restaurant. She shows a picture of her daughter who happens to be a trans woman and Dave mentions that he feels trapped. The woman knows who he is. She is aware of his previous comments about trans people.

Weeks later, Chappelle actually meets the woman's daughter in a bar. Everything is going fine until the woman turns on him and says, " can you mind not punching down on my people?!" Dave Chappelle hates this.

She kept calling transgender people her people. Were yall kidnapped in Transylvania and brought here as slaves? She said, "My people have struggled for decades, honey. Decades!"

Boom! Dave needs to see us again. He needs to rub the lamp and call upon Black LGBTQ people. The white trans woman was hanging out with two Black gay men.

…and I looked at them gay Black dudes like, "Is there anything you n*ggas need to to tell this b*ch?!

Again, no long story about the intersectional struggles of Black LGBTQ people. No history telling of people like William Dorsey Swan, who was a former slave who reigned over a secret world of drag balls in Washington, D.C. in the 1800s. Just a mention. Just a call. Just a command. Just erasure.

If any of you have ever listened to me you know that I have never had a problem with transgender people. If you listen to what I am saying, clearly my problem has always been with white people. Just when I thought I had you guys on the ropes, you change all the rules. "I'm a girl now n*gger and you must treat me as such!"

He then goes on to recite some of his past transphobic and homophobic statements that he says are not transphobic and homophobic. Similar to how some white people react when they are called racist but do not believe that they are racist.

I said how much do I have to participate in your self image. I said you shouldn't discuss this in front of Black people. I said I know n*ggas in Brooklyn that wear high heels to feel safe. I asked you why is it easier for Bruce Jenner to change his gender than it is for Cassius Clay to change his name.

Denial. Erasure. What? Lie (Read: Barriers to Gender-Affirming Care for Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Individuals).

Flashback: I remember being on a train in Brooklyn with a group of my friends, one with long hair and one in heels. A man, who happened to be Black looked at us and yelled on the train, "Look at them. I can't even hurt them without getting in trouble."

if you listen to me I am not even talking about them, I am talking about us and they. Don't. Listen! It is very annoying!

Dave moves on to explaining and identifying with being a TERF

…they don't hate trans women they just look at trans women the way we Blacks might look at blackface. It offends them. "Ew this b*tch is doing an impression of me."

At this point of the special, Black LGBTQ people are still inside of the lamp. Dave does not mention us, because he does not need us. He won't mention us for the rest of the show.

He does go on to use a white LGBTQ person, however. His trans friend Daphne. Daphne, unlike the Black gay men from earlier, did stand up for Chappelle against the cries of transphobia from other trans people. So much so, that Chappelle slightly alludes to the possibility that the negative response that Daphne received online could have added to her death.

After telling the story about Daphne, Dave goes on to misgender her in a joke. But says it is ok because, "Daphne would have loved it!" Very similar to when some white people say the have a Black friend that does not mind them using the N word.

Chappelle ends his special by talking about empathy.

Empathy is not gay. Empathy is not Black. Empathy is bisexual. It must go both ways. Remember taking a man's livelihood is akin to killing him. I am begging you, please do not abort DaBaby! Kevin Hart dreamt his entire life of hosting the Oscars and when he finally got the job they just took it... It is over. LGBTQ…lmnopqiz. It is over. I am not telling another joke about you until we are both sure that we are laughing together…all I ask from your community, with all humility…please stop punching down on my people!"

"please stop punching down on my people…"

At this point of the special, Black LGBTQ people are still inside of the lamp. Dave does not mention us, because he does not need us. He won't free us for the rest of the show.

Earlier in the special, Dave Chappelle tells the story of a formally enslaved Black man that went on to enslave other Black people.

Not only was he a slave owner but he was a slave breeder. He employed tactics that were so brutal that even white slave owners were like, "yo! My Man!" He was a wild dude, but he did it just because that is is what successful people did at the time. What a f*cking tragedy. How can a person that went through slavery perpetuate the same evil on a person that looks just like them. It is mind blowing!

Dave Chappelle. What a tragedy. It is mind blowing.

What happens when a joke without direction runs off of the stage? Does it stay a joke or does it burn down the room?