After the controversy at Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C., over the school’s relationship with its most famous graduate, Dave Chappelle, comes a surprise twist. Chappelle, after whom a theater building was supposed to be named, announced during a special naming ceremony that he would not lend his name to the theater after all. Instead, the theater is to be called the Theater for Artistic Freedom and Expression.
“I saw in the newspaper that a man who was dressed in women’s clothing threw a pie at the Mona Lisa and tried to deface it. And it made me laugh and I thought, ‘It’s like The Closer,’” he said, referring to his Netflix special, which prompted fierce backlash from trans activists.
“When you say I can’t say something, the more urgent is it for me to say it. It has nothing to do with what you are saying I can’t say. It has everything to do with my freedom of artistic expression.”
Chappelle is right that this controversy is much bigger than him, or even the issue of transgenderism. As I wrote previously, comedy exists to puncture sacred cows. Artistic freedom and expression are essential components of this. No belief — whether religious or ideological – should be insulated from criticism.