Channing Tatum voluntarily entered the controversial debate surrounding Dave Chappelle’s latest Netlfix standup special, “The Closer.”
The comedian, 48, is being criticized by many in the LGBTQ+ community for comments he made about transgender people. On Sunday, the “21 Jump Street” actor took to his Instagram Story to wade into the controversy. He began by highlighting the “hurt” Chappelle has caused the transgender community with his comments while also noting that artists like him are capable of having a positive impact as well.
“I understand that Dave is a very dangerous person to talk about at the moment. I understand and hate that he has hurt so many people with things he has said,” Tatum began.
The 41-year-old added: “Any human can hurt someone (usually cause they’re hurt) but any human can heal and heal others just the same. This little piece healed me back in the day. I can’t forget that.”
Channing Tatum stuck up for Dave Chappelle amid his ‘The Closer’ controversy.
(David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images/Paul Morigi/Getty Images)
The star’s words came along with a repost from comedian D.L. Hughley who shared a clip from Chappelle’s 2019 speech at the Kennedy Center while he was accepting the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, according to Yahoo Entertainment.
In the clip, Chappelle discusses how some words of wisdom from his mother led him into standup comedy.
“I was a soft kid,” the comedian says in the clip. “I was sensitive, I’d cry easy and I would be scared to fistfight. My mother used to tell me this thing… ‘Son, sometimes you have to be a lion so you can be the lamb you really are.’ I talk this s–t like a lion. I’m not afraid of any of you. When it comes word to word, I will gab with the best of them, just so I can chill and be me.
DAVE CHAPPELLE’S NETFLIX SPECIAL FACING CANCELLATION AFTER TRANS COMMENTS LEAVE CRITICS IRATE
“And that’s why I love my art form, because I understand every practitioner of it. Whether I agree with them or not, I know where they’re coming from. They want to be heard. They’ve got something to say. There’s something they noticed. They just want to be understood. I loved this genre. It saved my life.”
The “Magic Mike” star concluded his post by writing: “This does not excuse anything hurtful tho to be clear.”
Dave Chappelle in his latest Netflix special ‘The Closer.’
(Mathieu Bitton/Netflix)
Among the jokes from “The Closer” that upset people was one in which the comedian seemingly defended “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling, who previously made comments discounting transgender women from conversations about feminism. The author was criticized as a “TERF,” an acronym that stands for “trans-exclusionary radical feminist.”
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“They look at transgender women the way we Blacks look at Blackface,” Chappelle explains. “They go ‘oh, this b—- is doing an impression of me!'”
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That’s when Chappelle proudly declared that he too identifies as a “TERF.”
