In a new Instagram Stories post, Channing Tatum addressed Dave Chappelle’s work.
Channing Tatum has jumped into the debate over Dave Chappelle’s new Netflix special and claims that it contains damaging transphobic statements while stating that doing so is “very dangerous.”
Tatum appeared to offer admiration for Chappelle’s previous work while noting the “hurt” the comic has caused with his new special, The Closer, in which he defines himself as “Team TERF,” as in trans-exclusionary radical feminist, in a message uploaded to Instagram Stories on Sunday.
Tatum’s tweet includes a link to Chappelle’s 2019 address at the Kennedy Center to accept the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which the Magic Mike actor thanked with helping him.
Tatum’s article admitted that discussing Chappelle was “very dangerous” at this point in the debate.
“I understand that Dave is a very dangerous person to talk about at the moment,” Tatum wrote. “I understand and hate that he has hurt so many people with things he has said.
“Any human can hurt someone (usually cause they’re hurt), but any human can heal and heal others just the same,” he went on. “This little piece healed me back in the day. I can’t forget that.”
In the video, Chappelle shares advice his mother offered him when he was a “sensitive” youngster.
In the video, the comedian explains, “I was a soft kid. 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.
“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.”
Tatum went on to say that his respect for Chappelle’s previous work “does not excuse anything hurtful [however] to be clear.”
