The story of Daphne Dorman, a trans woman who defended Chappelle online after the backlash to
Sticks and Stones, ends with her being dragged on Twitter and her death by suicide. (Though Chappelle acknowledges that he doesn’t know what else was happening in her life, he insinuates a connection. “I bet dragging her didn’t help,” he says.) The special ends with Chappelle saying that Dorman was part of the same minority group as him: “my people”—comedians. He’s had enough of the “punching down.”
The story of Dorman, as presented in
The Closer, is a brutal indictment of social-justice activism on the internet. If Chappelle’s comedy is “
dangerous” because it could lead to real-world harm, then what the hell is the word for what happened to Dorman?