The Reverends Emmett G. Price III and Irene Monroe joined Boston Public Radio on Monday for another edition of "All Revved Up." This week the two discussed comedy duo Key & Peele's skit called "Negrotown." It's a send-up on the classic musical construction, except here the subject is the fraught relationship between US law enforcement and communities of color.
Questions are paraphrased. Responses are edited where noted [...].
What did you two make of "Negrotown?" (Note: you can watch a segment Basic Black did about the skit.)
Price: As a piece of art I appreciate it. I'm grateful, it's great Afro-futurism. [...] But it's a kind of existential dream sequence where the street person, Wally, is the conductor to this underground railroad to this haven, or heaven, for black folks. In times like this I think it is funny, but it's funny in a separatist way. [...] There's prolific use of the n-word in there, there's kind of overly-sensationalized, stereotypical things in there, some of which are funny in a slapstick way. But I don't think it brings together this notion of healing.
Monroe: It is sort of sci-fi for me. Black utopia — so why would we need one? Simply because you have to address the notion of the debasement of black humanity, the utter indifference we see to black suffering, and the denial of black people to exist. [...] Black bodies and black people in this country never had a free space to exist, because we came here as chattel slavery. [...] What would that space look like, to be someplace where we weren't policed?
Price: And we sing and dance, right?
But doesn't humor help diffuse some of the tension of this fraught situation?
Monroe: Humor is culturally-based. I'll give you an example. For instance, a lot of white folks have watched Seinfeld. But you can pretty much count on one hand how many of us — we, meaning people of African descent — not only watched it, but understood it. ["Negrotown"] is trying to bring the point across about the absurdity of race and policing, [but] it still in many ways falls within a "coon show." And I think that when you have that "coonishness" going on, you see that it hides — if not completely obliterates — the message.
When you do go to 'Negrotown' you have a whole lot of black people that are singing, dancing, shucking, jiving. Or you go to the real 'Negrotown,' which is jail.
Does the humor work better for white people than for African Americans and others who have to live with this reality?
Price: I don't know who it works better for. [...] Quincy Jones did a remake of the The Wizard of Oz called The Wiz. And then you had the great movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with the Oompa Loompas. So this is like the Oompa Loompas meet the singing and dancing people from The Wiz, you have all these great choreographed motions. When you do go to "Negrotown" you have a whole lot of black people that are singing, dancing, who are shucking, who are jiving. Or you go to the real Negrotown, which is jail.
Monroe: While some might laugh, it's quite a sad indictment. [...] What it's really saying is, there really is no black utopia, no black free space for us to exist.
Price: These jokes have been going on since the [1920s] — Amos 'n' Andy, into Moms Mabley, to folks like Richard Pryor, which gets us to Eddie Murphy, which gets us to Dave Chappelle, which gets us to Key & Peele. The fact that it's making jokes of the same stuff as the last century — that's an indictment of American society.
It makes a presupposition that a white person has a certain level of race consciousness to understand that this is a spoof, and not something to entertain you.
Hopefully white audiences understand it's satire, and that we can't actually create some sort of separate black enclave or utopia?
Price: You're the first white person I've heard talk about it, so I wouldn't know the answer to your question. And I think that's the point!
Monroe: It makes a presupposition that this white person has a certain level of race consciousness to understand that this is a spoof, and not something to entertain you by. I think that when we talk about humor, we always have to look at it within the context of the consumer. [...]
Again, doesn't it offer some measure of relief after everything that's happened recently in Baltimore and other places?
I think it gives you comic relief, because what happens is that we're all sort of balled up around race. So, it relieves you at that moment. [...] I would think that many African Americans would be offended by it.
>>You can hear the Revs. Emmett G. Price III and Irene Monroe every Monday around 1 PM on BPR. Price is a professor of music at Northeastern University and the author of The Black Church and Hip Hop Culture. Monroe is a syndicated religion columnist who writes for Huffington Post and Bay Windows.
