Chris Rock explained in a lengthy interview Sunday that he believes part of healing racial relations in America is by white people “owning” the actions of their ancestors.

The black comedian told New York magazine’s Frank Rich that racial progress in America is “nonsense” and that the only thing that’s changed is white people aren’t as crazy as they used to be.

“When we talk about race relations in America or racial progress, it’s all nonsense,” Mr. Rock said. “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.”

Mr. Rich asked the comedian if white people are “adjusting to a new reality?”

“Owning their actions. Not even their actions. The actions of your dad,” Mr. Rock said. “Yeah, it’s unfair that you can get judged by something you didn’t do, but it’s also unfair that you can inherit money that you didn’t work for.”

When asked for his thoughts on President Obama, Mr. 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,” he continued. “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.”

“So it’s not that Obama’s disappointing. It’s just his best album might have been his first album,” he added.

Mr. Rock then argued what he believed Mr. Obama should have done differently when he was elected president.

“When Obama first got elected, he should have let it all just drop,” he said. “Just let the country flatline. Let the auto industry die. Don’t bail anybody out. In sports, that’s what any new GM does. They make sure that the catastrophe is on the old management and then they clean up. They don’t try to save old management’s mistakes.

“Maybe Obama should have let the plane crash,” he added. “You get credit for bringing somebody back from the dead. You don’t really get credit for helping a sick person by administering antibiotics.”

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