Chris Rock talks racism, takes digs at black progress

By JENNY DEPPER

Comedian Chris Rock is trading in his silly quips in favor of a serious stance on politics and racism.

The 49-year-old actor sat down for an interview with New York Magazine recently and addressed racism in America today, dismantling the idea of black progress and instead calling it white progress.

"When we talk about race relations in America or racial progress, it's all nonsense. There are no race relations. White people were crazy. Now they're not as crazy. To say that black people have made progress would be to say they deserve what happened to them before," Rock explained.

Rock then turned his focus to President Barack Obama.

"To say Obama is progress is saying that he's the first black person that is qualified to be President. That's not black progress. That's white progress," Rock mused.

And while he seemed to be supportive of the president, he didn't shy away from pointing the finger at the president's efforts in office.

"I'm trying to figure out the right analogy," Rock said. "Everybody wanted Michael Jordan, right? We got Shaq. That's not a disappointment. You know what I mean? We got Charles Barkley. It's still a Hall of Fame career. The president should be graded on jobs and peace, and the other stuff is debatable. Do more people have jobs, and is there more peace? I guess there's a little more peace. Not as much peace as we'd like, but I mean, that's kind of the gig."

Rock pointed out that President Obama has tried to please the majority of the masses, which could have lead to recent ill sentiments.

Rock said that President George W. Bush "operated like a cable network" and "only served the people who voted for him," while Obama was "a network guy" and tried to "get everybody."

"I think he's figured out, and maybe a little late, that there's some people he's never going to get," Rock said.

The "Grown Ups 2" actor has been making the rounds this week as he promotes his film "Top Five," which he wrote and directed about real life comedians.

On Monday, he sat down with Matt Lauer on the "Today" show where he commended the longtime anchor for securing an interview with Janay Rice, wife of former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice.

"Today show, you guys are doing good! You got Ray Rice's wife on, man -- you'll show Good Morning America! We got the wife on!"

Before things got too icy, Lauer laughed off the comments and said, "We should've gone to commercial about 30 seconds ago -- too late, my bad!"