Dave Chappelle plays with stereotypes about Native Americans and African Americans in this monologue. He challenges stereotypes such as the “extinct Indian” while perpetuating those of ceremony and stoic Indians and finally places himself in the position of being discriminated against by the Native Americans. While he challenges many Americans’ assumptions with his Teepee joke turning into a story of injustice, he seems to be calling out Native American bias against black people, a phenomenon not unheard of. For example, according to a Cherokee Freedman, “‘many of the so-called Indians running the Oklahoma tribes are exclusive if the hyphenated Indian in black and inclusive if the hyphenated Indian is white’” (Brooks, 12). This sort of discrimination is not prevalent exclusively in Cherokee tribes, but has been a constant issue for multiracial people through US history.

Additionally, Chappelle brings up a potential answer to why there is so few instances of jokes with cross cultural references. “Everybody thinks they’re dead. These mother fuckers are not all dead!” Chappelle exclaims, exposing the myth of the extinct Indian while acknowledging his own surprise when encountering Native Americans for the first time (0:08). Perhaps the lack of accessible material is more due to the lack of contact between these two groups than anything else. Seeing as it was in the interest of European Americans to separate African Americans and Native Americans to remain in power, this lack of contact could perhaps be seen as a success of white hegemony (Black Indians).