Niggas vs. Black People

for the legal precident , see Niggas V. Black people (4th District)

"Niggas vs. Black People" is the title of one of Chris Rock's most famous and most controversial comedy routines. This bit, which appeared as track 12 on his 1997 album, Roll With the New, as well as his 1996 HBO special, Bring the Pain, is widely considered to be the breakthrough routine that established his status as a comedy fixture after he left Saturday Night Live.

Essentially an eight-minute rant about behaviors that Rock sees within the black community; he describes "niggas" as a certain cohort whose behavior is usually detrimental to the image of other black people and embody many African-American stereotypes. He describes the condition succinctly as being a "low-expectation-havin' motherfucker." The "niggas," he said, glorify ignorance and sloth, and show excessive pride for any bearing of token responsibility. Rock rejects the view that this image of African-Americans is purely cultivated by the media. In fact, he goes as far as to defend this point within the routine:

'Now, I see some black people looking at me: "Man, why you gotta say that? Why you gotta say that - it ain't us, it's the media. It ain't us, it's the media. The media has distorted our image to make us look bad, why must you come down on us like that, brother? It ain't us, it's the media." Please, cut the fucking shit, okay. Okay? Okay? When I go to the money machine tonight, alright, I ain't looking over my back for the media: I'm looking for niggas!'

The controversy caused by Rock's constant use of the word nigga led him to remove the piece from his act, although the word was prominent in both of his subsequent specials. In a 60 Minutes interview, Rock said, "By the way, I've never done that joke again, ever, and I probably never will. 'Cause some people that were racist thought they had license to say nigger. So, I'm done with that routine." In the course of the routine, Rock's tone alternates between sarcastic glee at the idea of joining the Ku Klux Klan, and rage at people who refuse to educate themselves. Chris Rock has also been accused of racism against whites for this routine, when he joked that America is also filled with "broke-ass white people" who have sex with their siblings. This has caused some people to think that Chris Rock's joke was not as much racist as it was classist. Some commentators think "niggas", in Chris Rock's mind, represent un- or under-educated working class Black people, while "Blacks" in Chris Rock's mind represent so-called "respectable" middle-class Blacks. They criticize Rock for class-based elitism.

In the second episode of the American version of The Office, Michael Scott (the white boss of the titular office) gets into trouble for reciting the monologue to colleagues, serving as the impetus for the plot of "Diversity Day."

External links

• Bennun, David, "Chris Rock," The Guardian, 2000.
• Chris Rock: Bring the Pain at IMDb