Dave Chappelle and rights of man 

The most controversial stand-up comedian working today is David Khari Webber Chappelle. 

After Netflix released his 72-minute comedy special The Closer, it was quickly dismissed as “dangerously transphobic”. 
Even after Chappelle said he was team “TERF”, an initialism which stands for Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminism, he still drew unfriendly fire from critics.
 
The Chappelle debacle, if you like, typifies the contrast between liberty and licence; as both jostle to reimagine our political lexicon towards what is politically acceptable or not. 
Today, thanks to Team LGBTQIA (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual), we must watch what we say more than ever.

As millionaire artists are “cancelled” for running afoul of TERF, ordinary folk are censored by social media’s community standards. 
Similarly, the furiously fast pace at which the LGBTQIA community is making strides far outdistances anything the civil rights movement ever achieved. 

This has left people wondering if there’s a Velvet Mafia (gay mafia) policing our thoughts with a view to abolishing gender in order to engender a non-binary world. 
This mafia is said to be led by rich Caucasians using sexuality to maximise their White privilege, which is really another form of tyranny. 

For as they control what we say or hear, they reinforce the current power structures with verbal masonries disempowering us of personal choice.
However, on the flipside, a US Bill was recently signed into law banning transgender girls from participating on girls’ sports teams in middle school through college.

This comes on the heels of 13 anti-trans Bills conservative lawmakers in the USA have passed this year alone. So if there is a Velvet Mafia, why are such Bills becoming law? 
Also, Chappelle seemed angry that the LGBTQIA community appears to be calling the shots while Black people are becoming a permanent underclass. 

Certainly, this is not good for liberty because it implies that those with the might (gays) are right; while those without it (Blacks) are wrong. 
That said; why should the gay community apologise for the progress it is making? 
This situation is not so much expressive of gay progress as it is symptomatic of the weaknesses within the Black community itself. 

After all, it was Black people who shot Malcolm X and it is also Black people who are famous for a crabs-in-a-bucket mentality. 
Namely, “if you put one crab in a bucket, it can claw its way up and out, and return to the wild. But something interesting happens if you put a bunch of crabs in a bucket. If one of them tries to climb out, the rest pull it back into the bucket.”

Still, we know there is no correct or incorrect emancipatory narrative (i.e., narrative of liberation), only a series of efforts progressively linked to closing ranks against those who deny any person or persons their essential humanity. 

The disparate nature of these efforts is due to the fact that freedom is frequently context-specific and is as varying as our differing political orientations. 
For instance, in the UK to “table” is to begin consideration of a proposal while in the                                                                              US to “table” means to suspend consideration of a proposal! 
Finally, Chappelle reminds us that freedom may reflect an inalienable human right to realise one’s human will. 
But this will is circumscribed by the extent to which rights are transferrable to the collective will, as defined by the ruling elite. 

So if the ruling elite are left unchallenged by the likes of Chappelle, we shall only be free to do as we are told and servility shall replace diversity. 

Mr Matogo is a professional copywriter  
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