Quote #13769
Black crime tends to be stupid, not crazy.When you hear on the news that somebody chopped off his girlfriend's head, drank her blood, and used her toes to play pool, chances are it was a white guy. An old lady kicked downstairs for her welfare check? A black guy. Someone cut out the old lady's eyes and used them as knickknacks? Definitely a white guy.
Chris Rock
About This Quote
This quote needs no introduction—at least for now. We're working on adding more context soon.
Interpretation
In this bit, Rock uses deliberately grotesque, escalating examples to draw a satirical distinction between “stupid” crime (impulsive, opportunistic violence) and “crazy” crime (bizarre, sensational acts). The contrast is not offered as criminology but as social commentary on how crime is racialized in American media and public imagination: everyday violence associated with Black perpetrators is treated as expected and legible, while extreme, lurid cases are framed as aberrant and thus more “newsworthy,” often linked to white perpetrators. The humor depends on shock and exaggeration to expose stereotypes and the unequal narrative scripts attached to race, criminality, and deviance.

