Dave Chappelle's special "The Closer" caused a lot of controversy. Netflix employees who organized a company walkout earlier this week in protest of the special.
According to the NYpost, in the special Chappelle declared "gender is a fact" and identified himself as a "TERF" or "trans-exclusionary radical feminist", sparking immediate backlash, including the Netflix employee walkout.
Chappelle said he would be open to a dialogue with Netflix employees but no one from Netflix, or the employee group that led the staff walkout contacted Chappelle or his team about setting up a meeting, the comedian's camp reportedly said. This is in dispute of what Ashlee Marie Preston, the transgender woman who organized the walkout claims.
"I invited Dave Chappelle to have a transformative dialogue about the harm that was committed, he chose not to show up." said Preston
Chappelle's camp said they're not sure why Preston made those claims. The show was Chappelle's sixth and final big-bucks deal with Netflix. It was immediately blasted as transphobic. Despite the controversy, "The Closer" is currently in the Top 10 most popular Netflix shows in the US, going as high as No. 3 earlier this week.
Neither Preston nor Netflix immediately returned the request for comment.