“No matter how sincerely some white people want to educate themselves and take action against racism, white comfort seems to block progress.”
Jon Stewart, host of “The Daily Show,” ran an episode entitled “Racism” for his 2022 streaming series “The Problem”, which addressed racial issues in America, including how race is portrayed by the mainstream media.
Jon Stewart: As you may know, this country has had issues when it comes to race
Stewart mentioned the first recorded arrival of Africans to North America which initiated the start of slavery, an incident dubbed the “1619 Project” by The New York Times.
Sarcastically, Stewart shared how “we’ve had a few hiccups along the road … until a couple of years ago another rare bad thing happened to black people in the summer of 2020.” Stewart referenced mainstream media outlets like Fox News, CNN, MSNBC and CBS talking about the death of George Floyd and a racial reckoning.
Stewart comedically said, “You guys finally want to talk about racial reparati-reckoning. We don’t want to right the wrong, we just gonna reckon we think about them for quite a bit.” He added, “Well not to worry, this egregious midday murder will not be in vain, let the work of writing centuries of oppression begin.”
This means that America was finally going to do something about the murder of George Floyd and how it correlates to the bigger issue of racial violence by law enforcement in the U.S.
What did America do? Stewart pointed to how U.S. companies responded to the tragic incident with George Floyd in 2020:
- Quaker Oats retired the Aunt Jemima brand
- B&G Foods changed its Cream of Wheat packaging
- NFL social justice branding
- Dixie Chicks dropped ‘Dixie’ from their name
- Government officials kneeling for George Floyd
- Prominent figures such as NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell saying, “White people need to listen”
‘This issue would have been solved if only white people would’ve said something’
Stewart depicted numerous modes of messaging that depict the black struggle and crying out for help.
Alicia Garza spoke at an event in 2016 saying, “We are expected to participate in democracy, while receiving conditional citizenship in return.”
On C-Span 3, a black woman in a government hearing said: “When zip code determines which kind of school you go to, the food you can eat. . . . These are the messages of enslavement.”
Kimberly Jones, co-author of “I’m Not Dying with You Tonight,” said, “So when you say ‘why do you burn down your community/neighborhood’? It’s not ours. We don’t own anything!”
The NBA’s Doc Rivers was in tears when he said, “It’s amazing that we keep loving this country and this country doesn’t love us back.”
Stewart: “I would probably have more hope on these sentiments having an impact on our culture if [they] haven’t been conveyed to white people over and over and over.”
One year earlier on morning radio show “The Breakfast Club” in 2020, Dr. Claud Anderson discussed America’s race-based society and said, “They never, never, never promised the primary promise of black folk . . . the promise that you never corrected, the legacies and burdens of slavery.”
Viola Davis, during her 2015 Emmys win speech, spoke of how “the only thing that separates women of color from anything else is opportunity.”
Sista Souja, in 1990, articulated directly to Bill Clinton and Larry King that, “the thing that kills black people is what whites do [which is] their policies, their actions.”
Jon Stewart said, “You see, white people are pretending that this problem is new and we are hearing about it now because we love to discover stuff that has already existed,” to which the audience laughed. “After all, they know we took credit from the Native Americans for discovering America first.”
He continued, “As a matter of fact, this shit has been said many times just by Chris Rock.”
On Chris Rock’s multiple comedy specials, he uttered the words:
- “There isn’t a white man in this room that wouldn’t want to change places with me and I’m rich.”
- “You had a 400 year head start.”
- “The black man has to fly to get something the white man can walk to.”
Stewart responded by explaining how people look for another mode of expression of the racial divide through hip-hop music.
He showed Tupac rapping the lyrics: “Fathers of this country never cared for me/They kept my ancestors shackled in slavery/ And Uncle Sam never did a damn thing for me/Except lie about facts in my history.”
“It’s wonderful that white people are finally ready to sit back and listen but DAAAAMNNN, the black people speaking out now are just sampling the classics.”
He pointed to a string of prominent black people in history that were expressing the black struggle.
For example, Angela White said, “Racism is so deeply embedded into the fabric of society.”
James Baldwin spoke about it in England: “It comes as a great shock to discover the country that is your birthplace and to which you owe your faith and your identity has not in its whole system of reality does not involve any place for you.”
In 1852, Frederick Douglass said, “The rich inheritance for justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence is shared by you, not by me.”
“And now, 170 years later, suddenly we are like “Hey, you seem upset, we’re still cool, right? Did we do something. Black people have given us step-by-step instructions for centuries. And even with all that.”
Stewart pointed to the wealth gap and segregation being worse, homeownership being strikingly unequal between white and black people and the difference in the median household wealth.
Former President Barack Obama stated if “black Americans just work hard and study, they will likely succeed,” whereas Stewart continued the quote: “Just not as much as a white kid who doesn’t work and study hard.” Obama was hopeful that the black community could understand this sentiment.
‘White people have never resolved the original sins of slavery and their response is problematic’
Stewart highlighted several mainstream media outlets reiterating the same theme: If this black person can be successful, so can everyone else. Examples include LeBron James, Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama.
Stewart then shared how a large swath of white Americans think black Americans are solely responsible for their community’s shortcomings and the bias is so pervasive that we don’t even notice it.
Former President George H.W. Bush said, “Crack . . . who’s responsible — everyone who uses drugs.” Then the media showed it’s just black people “in red or blue outfits” using crack or being reprimanded by the police for its use.
The media displayed messages of the “War on Crack,” crack babies overwhelming the social service delivery system and crack affecting “our schools, our kids, our streets.” The president would say that it’s murdering our children and turning our cities into war zones.
Jon Stewart said, “This is not to downplay the effects of the crack epidemic, but we are in the midst of an equally corrosive opioid epidemic.”
The media portrayed white people being affected by opioids who are parents, grandparents, injured athletes, war veterans, cancer patients, etc.
“The point is that it’s on purpose and the people who made it that way only had to pay a fine,” Stewart said, equating the problem to poverty in America and how the same empathy gap exists.
An award-winning PBS journalist said, “Inner city is a polite name for black ghetto.” Jon Stewart then asked, “Just out of curiosity, why is the black ghetto poor?”
Multiple white media talking heads talked about the collapse of the traditional family in the black community.
Jon Stewart asked, “By the way, how do we portray poverty in the outer city?”
Media outlets like CNN and PBS have portrayed people living in poverty in white, non-urban areas with sympathy and empathy, using phrases such as:
- People here have struggled
- Painful drift of job losses for decades
- The disappearance of high school degrees
- Low self-worth
- Depression being relieved by drug use
‘White people are poor and do drugs because something has been done to them. Black people are poor and do drugs because they won’t just get up and do something.’
After protests and riots during social justice movements where buildings and infrastructures were destroyed, such as at Philadelphia in April 20218, white media would say things like, “This is not what the people of Philadelphia want to see.”
Stewart asked the audience rhetorically, “How would you want people to see the city of Philadelphia?”
In comparison, white media outlets portrayed sports championship celebrations where property was destroyed as people having a good time.
“White people have always prioritized comfort over black survival. Black people have had to fight so hard for equality that they have been irreparably set back in the pursuit of equity in any real attempt to [comedically butchers ‘repairs’ with ‘reparations’] a ton of that damage. Reparations sets off white people’s ‘they’re coming for our shit alarm’ which we would know ourselves if we have actually been listening.”
Toni Morrison, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, said, “White people have a very very serious problem and they should think about what they should do about it, take me out of it.” Jon Stewart responded: “Understood.”
Conclusion
Jon Stewart and the rest of his cast of writers and producers are right. The problem with white people is that they don’t listen, but it’s deeper than that.
I hate using the word “they” because it is a divisive term that depicts a group of people against another group of people, but in this case, it is fair. The reason why is they are the people who have the most power to change how race relations are perceived in America.
Institutional racism in the media is exhibited when white people perpetuate negative images and messages of black people in a repeatedly in a way that creates a bias towards them. On the other hand, they convey images and messages of White people in a positive light in a repeated fashion that creates a bias for them too.
It’s not only white people on mainstream news outlets that point to black people being successful like LeBron James and Oprah Winfrey, so “if they can do it then you can do it.”
Morgan Freeman reiterated the same sentiment in an interview with Don Lemon on CNN in June 2014. A part of the problem is how we all think if Freeman thinks like this as a black man then imagine how many other black people think like this. Do you? A blog from Medium depicts this idea as it explains how black people use race as an excuse for their shortcomings. It is much more complex than that.
Yes, we can come together and use our collective power to change the system, but as Chris Rock alluded to, the black man has to fly for something the white man can walk to. This means black people coming together and using our resources to change systemic racism in America would be perceived as an obstacle and an inconvenience to mainstream society, as opposed to white initiatives.
We should continue reiterating the same messages prominent black people in the past did like Toni Morrison, Tupac, Angela White and Kimberly Jones.
As Tupac Shakur said, “I’m not saying that I’m gonna change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world.”
Featured image: Photo by John Cameron on Unsplash
