"Race doesn't mean what it used to in America anymore," comedian Louis C.K. tells Rolling Stone in a profile featured in its upcoming issue. This is a point that perhaps LL Cool J and Brad Paisley were trying (and failing) to raise in their duet, "Accidental Racist," earlier this week.
But it might surprise "Louie" fans to know that race has shaped the comedian's cynical, irreverent brand of humor, which focuses more on day-to-day observations than complex political issues. C.K., who spent six years in Mexico as a child, says his observations as a Mexican immigrant "made me an observing person" who "had the help of a whole nation of people just accepting that I'm white."
He says:
"Obama's black, but he's not black the way people used to define that. Is black your experience or the color of your skin? My experience is as a Mexican immigrant, more so than someone like George Lopez. He's from California. But he'll be treated as an immigrant. I am an outsider. My abuelita, my grandmother, didn't speak English. My whole family on my dad's side is in Mexico. I won't ever be called that or treated that way, but it was my experience."
Shares