Chris Rock Says Obama Presidency Was ‘Progress for White People … Not Progress for Black People’

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Comedian Chris Rock dismissed Barack Obama’s presidency as “progress for white people” in an interview with The New York Times — and blamed Democrats for letting the coronavirus “come in” while they were focused on their unsuccessful effort to impeach President Donald Trump.

“I said this before, but Obama becoming the president, it’s progress for white people,” Rock said in the interview published Wednesday. “It’s not progress for Black people. It’s the Jackie Robinson thing. It’s written like he broke a barrier, as if there weren’t Black people that could play before him. And that’s how white people have learned about racism. They think, when these people work hard enough, they’ll be like Jackie.

“And the real narrative should be that these people, the Black people, are being abused by a group of people that are mentally handicapped,” Rock said. “And we’re trying to get them past their mental handicaps to see that all people are equal.”

The 55-year-old comedian and actor — who recently finished filming a role in the fourth season of the Fargo series on FX — also compared the president to a “five-year-old” and said Democrats were more responsible for allowing the coronavirus pandemic to spread.

“Did you ever see that movie The Last Emperor, where, like, a five-year-old is the emperor of China?” Rock said. “There’s a kid and he’s the king. So I’m like, it’s all the Democrats’ fault. Because you knew that the emperor was 5 years old. And when the emperor’s 5 years old, they only lead in theory. There’s usually an adult who’s like, ‘OK, this is what we’re really going to do.’

“And it was totally up to Pelosi and the Democrats,” he added. Their thing was, ‘We’re going to get him impeached,’ which was never going to happen. You let the pandemic come in. Yes, we can blame Trump, but he’s really the 5-year-old.”