Comedian Dave Chappelle addresses Netflix transgender controversy in full for first time By Reuters

By Helen Coster

(Reuters) – Editor’s be aware: Consideration to sturdy language in paragraph 4 that would offend some readers

Comic Dave Chappelle on Monday addressed the transgender controversy at Netflix https://www.reuters.com/enterprise/media-telecom/netflix-workers-stage-walk-out-over-chappelle-transgender-comments-2021-10-20 in full for the primary time on a video on his Instagram account, 5 days after about 100 individuals protested close to the streaming firm’s headquarters.

The worker backlash started after Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:) determined to launch Chappelle’s new comedy particular, “The Nearer,” which critics say ridicules transgender individuals.

“It’s been mentioned within the press that I used to be invited to talk to transgender staff at Netflix and I refused,” Chappelle mentioned within the video. “That isn’t true. If that they had invited me I might have accepted it. Though I’m confused about what we’re talking about … You mentioned you desire a secure working setting at Netflix. Nicely it looks as if I’m the one one that may’t go to the workplace anymore.”

“I would like everybody on this viewers to know that though the media frames this as me versus that neighborhood, it’s not what it’s,” Chappelle mentioned. “Don’t blame the LBGTQ neighborhood for any of this shit. This has nothing to do with them. It’s about company curiosity and what I can say and what I can’t say.”

Netflix Chief Content material Officer Ted Sarandos stoked additional unrest with an Oct. 11 employees memo by which he acknowledged Chappelle’s provocative language in “The Nearer” however mentioned it didn’t cross the road into inciting violence.

In interviews earlier than the walkout, Sarandos acknowledged “I screwed up” in how he spoke to Netflix’s employees in regards to the particular.

In Monday’s video, Chappelle mentioned that after the controversy he started getting disinvited from movie festivals that had accepted a documentary he made final summer season, and that he’s now making that documentary out there in ten American cities.

“Thank god for Ted Sarandos and Netflix,” Chappelle mentioned. “He’s the one one who didn’t cancel me but.”