Dave Chappelle Releases ‘8:46’ Special in Wake of George Floyd’s Death

“We’re not desperate for heroes in the black community. [Anybody] that survives this nightmare is my God d*mn hero,” Dave Chappelle exclaims as he speaks towards the passed and current racial tension in America. By releasing his new special titled “8:46”, the legendary comedian became the highest trending story on twitter, and for good reason. For a little over 27 minutes, Dave Chappelle uses his massive platform to shed some light on the injustices that black people face in regards to police brutality. 

The performance was taped in front of a mask-wearing, social distancing audience that seemed to be expecting a comedy special. Little to no jokes were actually told as Chappelle had more important things on his mind. 

After the killing of George Floyd, Chappelle found it hard to watch the video and remained silent about the whole situation until now. He named his new special “8:46” after the amount of time that the police officer had his knee on Floyd’s neck. Almost immediately, Chappelle’s anger and emotional pain towards the event was shown in the video. Following his explanation for remaining silent and his disgust for the police officers involved, he started down the road of past atrocities in the relationship between the black community and law enforcement. By mentioning names like Eric Garner and Chris Dorner, Chappelle paints a realistic picture of the mistakes, oversights, and racially charged actions that police and news broadcasts still defend to this day. 

Just as he was furious with police, he also showed his discontent for the media. He targeted Candace Owens and Don Lemon specifically for the statements that they have made. Lemon had made claims against celebrities for ‘hiding in their mansions’ during all of the social outrage and Chappelle was hoping that he was mentioned so that he could fire back. “Do you want to see a celebrity right now?…Does it matter about celebrities? No. This is the streets talking for themselves. They don’t need me right now,” says the veteran comedian. 

Dave Chappelle gave a very intelligent and emotionally driven performance and articulates our problems as a country extremely well.

Listen to the entire special here.

By: Christian Cuciniello