Larry Wilmore and Jon Stewart discuss the racial implications of the Trayvon Martin case. Why is it that it is on a comedy show that one finds a relatively calm and balanced discussion of such inflammatory topics?
(This clip appeared on April 4, 2012. To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report outside the US, please see this earlier post.)
That was one of the most sane and unemotional discussions of the Trayvon Martin killing I’ve heard yet.
Not being a person who watches FOX news or pays attention to other right-wing media news outlets, I had no idea the whole “Why aren’t we discussing Black-on-Black crimes?!” line was being pushed by them. Sadly, I’ve seen atheists themselves take up that line, which is Totally Not Racist™, of course.
The worst thing about that Totally Not Racist line of reasoning is the right wing media, in order to make such a contention must willfully ignore the many many examples of black Americans doing just that! Ta-Nehisi Coates sums it up well here…
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/04/why-dont-black-people-protest-black-on-black-violence/255329/
Yes, isn’t that telling? Larry Wilmore actually mentioned that briefly in his first point. 🙂 Besides that, studies of violence in the USA showing that are old news at the moment (at least as old as 2009), not a current event that is gripping the nation. It’s weird how people are trying to rationalize their indifference to a child being murdered by a vigilante without consequence.
“Why is it that it is on a comedy show that one finds a relatively calm and balanced discussion of such inflammatory topics?”
Because comedy imposes rather strict limits on what works even when, or especially when treating difficult or controversial topics. Unlike propaganda which trends to extremes to further separate the in group from the out group