Many people have reacted to “the recent roast of Kevin Hart” - and not exactly positively. The raucous event publicly released on May 10 included acerbic jokes from comedians Shane Gillis, Tony Hinchcliffe, and others. Hinchcliffe made a joke about George Floyd that generated considerable online backlash. Pete Davidson and Hinchcliffe both made jokes alluding to but not overtly saying the N-word. Numerous comedians, among them Dwayne Johnson, Gillis, and Jeff Ross, repeatedly joked about Hart’s late father’s drug addiction. Ross summarized the event’s philosophy the next day with a phrase that unintentionally captured the drama: “Nothing was off limits.”

Not surprisingly, the backlash was powerful and swift with criticism coming from activist Tamika Mallory, comedians Loni Love and Lil Rel Howery, and even George Floyd’s family who expressed their outrage after Hinchcliffe, who previously made an insensitive joke about Floyd, commented, “The Black community is so proud of you . . . right now, George Floyd is looking up at us all laughing so hard he can’t breathe.” In response to the callous remark, the Gianna and George Floyd Foundation said the joke was “sad for the culture.” Eventually, Saturday Night Live star Michael Che weighed in. Taking issue with the event’s writers, he stated, “White guys and Black people joke different. Black guys roast like, ‘look at this [N-word] shoes!’ White roasts are like, ‘slavery, math, slain teens, sex crimes, slurs, family secrets, etc.’” As you can imagine, large segments of the blogosphere went into overdrive with rabid and ample criticism.

The question is not whether celebrities or political roasts should have boundaries. Rather, it is whether adhering to the doctrine of “nothing is off limits” demands a level of understanding between the comedian and the audience about who is espousing such rhetoric and the reasons for doing so. When tragic and horrifying situations such as George Floyd’s lynching become the highlight of discussion during the honoring of a Black celebrity, the question of who is espousing such comments - and whether they have secured the cultural legitimacy to verbalize them in such an environment - cannot be discounted. Additionally, both the N-word and the subject of lynching have a deep, dark, and sordid history in America, particularly relating to Black Americans. Neither should be perversely manipulated or ridiculed!

That said, a number of people across racial lines, including Blacks, have weaponized the term for varied gain. Those of us old enough can remember the Anita Hill–Clarence Thomas saga in fall 1991. The hearings were a dramatic and riveting spectacle filled with sleazy revelations and intense commentary from all sides. President George H. W. Bush nominated Thomas in summer 1991 to replace Supreme Court giant Thurgood Marshall who had the distinction of being the first Black American to serve on the court. Supporters of Hill and Thomas delivered eloquent and often heart-wrenching testimony about their own lives as well as those of Hill and Thomas.

The most notable and stunning (depending on your point of view) comment emanating from the event was Thomas’s declaration to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he was “the victim of a high-tech lynching for uppity Blacks who deign to think for themselves.” Yes indeed! With a straight face, the now Justice Thomas brazenly espoused such a disingenuous remark! For those of us who were already glued to our television sets, such an unabashedly arrogant comment was the height of intellectual dishonesty.

Several Black (and some White) public figures cried “How dare he!” and took to the op-ed pages of prestigious newspapers and magazines to criticize Thomas. To be sure, others offered supportive commentary. The Senate eventually confirmed Thomas 52–48, the closest margin of victory ever for a Supreme Court nominee. To me and other people of color, in particular Black Americans, the most outrageous moment of this saga was Thomas’s audacity in comparing his situation to a lynching! He undoubtedly caught the Judiciary Committee off guard too. Say what you will, I have to concede that Thomas demonstrated perverted cleverness and genius.

I am certain that he ruminated about which word would have the most powerful and resonating impact on the Judiciary Committee. Although a dishonest and insulting tactic, it successfully elevated him to the highest court in the US. While I abhor his stunt, Thomas must have known that it would work in his favor.

Other high-profile Black men have followed Thomas’s lead. They include disgraced mega entertainer and convicted felon Bill Cosby, the late Virginia lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax, and currently incarcerated R&B music superstar Robert Kelly (aka R. Kelly). They all claimed that they were the victims of lynchings! Please! To add insult to injury, Cosby compared himself to freedom-fighting statesmen Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi. No need to respond to such bulls*it! While Cosby, Fairfax, and Kelly found themselves under siege (largely due to their own misbehavior and missteps), they were never the victims of lynchings! In fact, when I first read about their claim to be lynching victims, my reaction was “Negroes, please!” I am not allowed to print what I actually said!

To my knowledge, none of them had a noose tied around their neck or were brutally drowned in a river with a rope or other materials strapped to their bodies. None was strung up from a large oak tree. None had their hands, feet, or genitals cut off (in some cases stuffed in their mouth), gasping their last dying breaths as crowds of White men, women, and even young children gawked with animalistic glee, hurling racial epithets and other ribald comments as the bodies limply swung back and forth from a tree. For added “entertainment,” the killers could have doused the victims with gasoline, set them on fire, and allowed them to burn to ashes. Afterward, vile and crazed spectators would frantically pick at the seared corpses to collect severed body parts as souvenirs or for other unthinkable purposes. Let’s cut to the chase. Yes, we know that Black American men have had a long and tortured history of being the frequent victims of a vehemently hostile and racially biased criminal justice system that has routinely scapegoated and targeted Black and increasingly Brown men.

Some Black men in history were indeed lynched. For example, Emmett Till and George Stinney Jr., both teenage Black boys in mid-20th century America. Many Black men and some women were taken from their homes in the middle of the night or sometimes in broad daylight and were lynched! Black families in the south and other parts of the nation, their homes firebombed in the middle of the night while they slept, unable to escape the flames and burned to death, were lynched. Lynching has affected countless numbers of Black families. The sadistic practice has a long and ugly history. Its cruel, rapacious, and vile legacy is nothing to joke about. Indeed, it is an affront to the thousands who endured such an abominable experience.