When it was announced that Dave Chappelle would host “Saturday Night Live” last week, I was excited. With new cast members in the process of gelling, skits with hit-or-miss jokes, and lackluster writing that at times makes one wonder if the series in its 48th season still has the steam to power forward to season 50, adding Dave Chappelle to the guest host spot was a no-brainer. A killer monologue and an evening full of laughs on top of laughs. Even before Chappelle hit the stage for his third “Saturday Night Live” hosting gig, there were rumors of potential problems. “Saturday Night Live” writers allegedly were not too happy with a Chappelle appearance and some reported that there would be a writer walkout or boycott. The rumors spun from the controversy that followed after Chappelle’s Netflix special “The Closer,” which angered many in the LGBTQI+ community due to what some considered transphobic and anti-transgender comedic material peppered throughout the performance. Representatives for Chappelle denied reports that there was a potential “Saturday Night” boycott, noting that Chappelle had met with the writers and listened to pitches for the upcoming episode.

Not being privy to what was actually mentioned in the writer meeting or the discussions between creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels, after watching the episode it is clear that concessions were negotiated and agreed upon. With that being said, Chappelle went into his monologue Saturday knowing that he would be untethered and essentially unbothered. That is not to say that Chappelle at this point in his career has not earned the right to be unapologetic about the craft he has successfully mastered. But as the Marvel Multiverse has taught us, with great power comes great responsibility. Chappelle’s monologue was risky, full of potential landmines. He tackled the corporate cancellation of Ye for making antisemitic remarks on social media, slyly hinting that Ye was correct in his assessment of the elite Jewish establishment as power brokers in Hollywood and Wall Street. He then skipped to the Brooklyn Nets’ Kyrie Irving who was suspended last week for “publicizing a film containing deeply disturbing antisemitic hate,” the organization stated. In his intense monologue, at which I did at times uncomfortably laugh, Chappelle walked that tightrope of poking fun at hot cultural topics of the moment, and carefully inserting his own assessment within the framework. Sometimes Chappelle’s assessment is searingly spot on. On other occasions it is like a car teetering on a cliff. The audience is left with the decision to laugh at his brand of intelligent comedy which can mean blindly agreeing with his comedic rhetoric, or walking away questioning their moral compass because that is the overall brilliance of Chappelle. That is what makes him the comic genius of our era.

However, we cannot remain silent or make excuses for the missteps that Chappelle makes in the name of comedy. Just as Dave Chappelle stealthily and with much precision placed the perception within his comedy that Ye, and by extension, Kyrie Irving, were being bullied for exercising their First Amendment right to free speech, we have to be just as stealthy in reminding our community that prejudice and discrimination of any kind is unacceptable. How can we stand strong as a Black nation if we remain divided in our perception in regard to racism and White supremacy and White nationalism?

You may ask what has any of this have to do with Chappelle’s “Saturday Night Live” monologue? Toward the end of his opening, Chappelle used the N-word. Black America has an interesting love affair of the word. Whether it ends with the traditional “ger,” the “gga” or “ggaz,” it is a problematic idiom that carries the weight of hate, anger, rage and White supremacy. Chappelle did not hesitate, stumble, pause, edit nor apologize for his insertion of the word within his monologue. NBC/Universal did not edit or censure the word. In its closed-caption translation, the N-word appeared in its White supremacist form with the “gger” and not the colloquial hip hop friendly “gga” or “ggaz.” Michaels did not bleep it. This suggests that perhaps one of the concessions that Michaels allowed was Chappelle’s usage of the word.

But let’s take a moment and think about that. Why would NBC/Universal and Michaels agree to letting a negative, racist trope be used in such an international media platform? If Wall Street has the capabilities to bring Ye to a financial standstill for making antisemitic statements, and Irving can be told that he is “currently unfit to be associated with the Brooklyn Nets” for posting a documentary to his social media that, again, featured racist tropes, why is it that Michaels and NBC did not feel that same energy regarding Chappelle and the N-word?

The answer is simple. Black America wants to laugh with Chapelle and come to the defense of Ye and Irving in the name of free speech, but we do not want to take responsibility for carrying the mantle of hate rhetoric upon our backs. We do not want to admit that we are hypocrites. We demand equal rights, equality in justice, and first-class citizenship, yet we help to perpetuate harmful stereotypes and hate speech. We cheer, laugh and high five one another while hurling the Nword at one another. We have become knee deep in the word so much so that when we heard it Saturday night, many of us did not flinch. Using it is hate speech and because Black America has not reconciled that fact, we in effect make things difficult for ourselves. It’s like my Grandmother Ophelia used to tell me: “We teach people how to treat us by what we accept.” Jewish Americans have taught America and the world how they want to be treated. They do not want derogative language slung at them in jest, comedy, or political discussion, neither do they approve of the public discourse of racist rhetoric defaming their culture and religion. There are consequences for antisemitic behavior. When will there be consequences for anti-Black behavior? Using the N-word is anti-Black and until we realize this and do something about it, our agenda as a people will be repeatedly ignored. As we laugh at Chappelle in all his comedic genius, let’s not turn a blind eye to this fly in the ointment. Laughing at the N-word is not cool. It is yet another form of self-hate.