Video: Tell T a Joke | Glenn Ligon

So I’m going to tell a joke by Paul Mooney, a comedian. He was great friends with Richard Pryor and also worked on the Dave Chappelle show. And he told this joke on David Letterman’s show in 2008. “I have to tell you this story my neighbor told me, and then I’ll stop. My white neighbor told me a joke. Then I’m finished. And I laughed so hard. About her sister who’s a white woman, who baked a chocolate cake for her little white son. And she turned her back and the little white son put chocolate on his face and said, ‘Look, mommy, I’m Black.’ And she slapped him. She said, ‘Don’t you ever say that in this house. Go tell your dad what you said.’ He said, ‘Look, daddy, I’m Black.’ And the daddy slapped him. ‘Don’t you ever say that. Go tell your grandfather what you said.’ ‘Look, grandpa, I’m Black.’ And grandpa slapped him. ‘Go back to your mother.’ And the mother sits him down and said, ‘Timmy, now what have you learned today?’ And Timmy said, ‘I’ve learned I’ve been Black for five minutes, and already I hate you white people.’”