{"id":42260,"date":"2015-08-16T21:36:18","date_gmt":"2015-08-16T21:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=42260"},"modified":"2016-06-26T20:10:02","modified_gmt":"2016-06-26T20:10:02","slug":"key-peele-ends-while-nation-could-still-use-a-laugh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=42260","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Key & Peele\u2019 Ends While Nation Could Still Use a Laugh"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Key & Peele\u2019 Ends While Nation Could Still Use a Laugh<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a>
\n2015-08-15<\/p>\n

Dave Itzkoff<\/a><\/strong>, Culture Reporter<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
\n Jordan Peele, left, and Keegan-Michael Key in a scene from the final season of \u201cKey & Peele<\/a>.\u201d Credit Comedy Central<\/em><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The scene is a hauntingly familiar one: A white police officer stalks an unarmed black man in a dark alley and slams the man\u2019s head into the open door of his patrol car.<\/p>\n

But then, rather than being taken into police custody, the man is led through a magical door to the sunlit, upbeat streets of a utopia called Negrotown<\/a>, whose black populace serenades the visitor about its city, where \u201cyou can walk the street without getting stopped, harassed or beat\u201d and \u201cyou can wear your hoodie and not get shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

This comic sketch is one of many that have made \u201cKey & Peele<\/a>,\u201d the Comedy Central<\/a> series created by and starring Keegan-Michael Key<\/a> and Jordan Peele<\/a>, a television program that is uniquely calibrated to the current American moment, when real-life examples of racial polarization and conflict are ubiquitous, but opportunities in pop culture to process these divisions are rare.<\/p>\n