Education

College Tells Black Comedian He Can’t Make Jokes About Race

Hannibal_Buress circa 2012 | By Ezmosis (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Comedian Hannibal Buress performed a stand up comedy set at Loyal University of Chicago Saturday and had his microphone cut for ignoring the school’s programming guidelines.

Buress opened with a Loyola email to him describing the content guidelines, asking him to stay away from issues of “rape, sexual assault, race and sexual orientation,” according to the Loyola Phoenix.

Buress made a joke about Catholic priests and molestation, which resulted in Loyola University cutting his audio, drawing boos from the crowd. The school drowned him out with music after Buress tried performing without the mic, causing him to leave for 15 minutes. He returned to close out the show, the Phoenix reported.

School administrators made all the decisions, which had nothing to do with the students, Department of Programming Assistant Director Leslie Watland said, according to an email she sent to the Phoenix.

“DOP students did not make any day-of decisions for Hannibal Buress‘ show,” Watland wrote in the email. “Student Development Administrators made the decisions.”