Beyond Banana Peels

Chappelle banana peel incident sparks panel discussion on racism and privilege

A group of artists and activists want to turn the infamous Dave Chappelle banana peel incident into a constructive conversation about race and privilege in Santa Fe.


Noah Kass, a Prescott College student who structured his current semester to study in Santa Fe, has announced a community discussion on the topic next week. The event, dubbed "Un-Peeling Racism," will take place at 6:30 pm on Monday, April 13, at Warehouse 21. Albuquerque poet and activist Hakim Bellamy is set to moderate a panel of yet-to-be-named people.


Media have a tendency to polarize the race issue and pit people against each other, Kass says, and he wants to use the discussion as an opportunity to bridge gaps.


Kass says the effort isn't about focusing on what Christian Englander did as much as recognizing how throwing a banana peel at a black comedian and the ensuing public outcry around it are emblematic of a society with hundreds of years of racism engrained in it. Englander, pictured above in his jail mugshot from the night he was arrested on assault charges, has said he didn't realize the act could be racist until someone explained it to him in jail.


Englander's white privilege allowed him to be ignorant of the ugly history of comparing black people to monkeys, Kass says. People of color, on the other hand, don't have the luxury to ignore racism's existence, he explains.


"The appalling nature of racism is the ability to not know it exists," he says.


Likewise for the outrage from many in the community who called Englander racist and demanded he leave Santa Fe. Kass says that the incident made Englander "the bearer of this racist flag," when really "we all have racist tendencies." In other words, individualizing racism is both polarizing and dishonest.


"I have a big problem with people saying, 'You're a racist. You're a racist,'" Kass says. "The thing we need to understand is we are all racists. We are conditioned in a racist society."

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