Dave Chappelle- NAACP Presidents Award Speech

Thank you, Mr.

President, for this honor.

You know, look, I won a lot of awards recently, but this one tonight is probably the most special award I've ever gotten because it's from this institution that represents these people, us, people of color, black people.

My godbrother is here tonight, Ben Jealous.

Ben used to be the president of the NAACP.

And I asked him, I said, what do you think I should say tonight? And Ben sent me a whole speech.

But what was important, he said in 1915, the movie Birth of a Nation came out and had a hideous depiction of African-Americans.

And by 1927, the NAACP had opened its first office here in Hollywood.

And from then, a hundred years ago to this very night, they have been chipping away at this industry so that people like me can stand up in front of people and tell my story or our stories.

Each and every artist in here, every opportunity we get, every time we're on camera, on stage, we just keep chipping away at this monster of a machine.

But tonight, man, tonight I feel invigorated because all my Netflix checks cleared.

I don't owe anybody any work.

Right now, every time you see me, just know I'm only up there because I wanna be right up there.

And I hope all of us who work in this industry feel strong and inspired and not discouraged, especially because this is a very difficult time right now.

And your institution is sadly more relevant than it's been in a long time.

We've got a lot of work to do.

But it feels good to know that we're not in it alone.