Madonna’s tour documentary Madame X has landed the singer in hot water with her fans due to comments she made praising Dave Chappelle.
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In the documentary, now airing on Paramount+, Chappelle makes a brief appearance as Madonna sits next to him in the audience. Queerty reports that Madonna called Chappelle “the next James Baldwin,” making fans pause.
The irony of the statement comes in light of Chappelle‘s litany of homophobic and transphobic comments, including those recently made in his latest standup special The Closer on Netflix. In the special, Chappelle made comments against trans women and declared himself to be “Team TERF” with J.K. Rowling. “TERF” stands for “trans-exclusionary radical feminism,” an ideology that discriminates against trans women. Meanwhile, Baldwin is a celebrated Black thinker and writer who was also gay.
Not Madonna calling Dave Chappelle “the next James Baldwin” in the middle of the Madame X concert film. pic.twitter.com/T9YjO1xV0J
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Chappelle has already made queerphobic statements before, making it even stranger that Madonna, who has a large queer following, would equate him to a queer icon. It also appears as if the only reason Madonna equated him to Baldwin is because they both have spoken about racial issues.
Fans sounded off on Twitter about Chappelle and Madonna, with one writing, “As a Madonna fan, I was loving watching her Madame X concert film until she called homophobic and transphobic Dave Chappelle the next James Baldwin. Nope. No. James Baldwin would have never stood for such foolishness.”
Another wrote, “I think anyone saying ‘Dave Chappelle is the next James Baldwin’ is saying it to troll and provoke, right? And when it’s a cis het white person saying it, it’s punching down and it’s bullying. I doubt Madonna has any awareness of that though.”
