General Discussion

kpete

(72,005 posts) Sat Apr 2, 2016, 11:31 AM Apr 2016

Trevor Noah: ‘It’s easier to be an angry white man than an angry black man’

“I grew up learning one thing: it’s way easier to be an angry white man than an angry black man,” he says. “White people – for the most part – have always had their anger heard. When white people complain shit gets done, it gets changed. Black people have learned you need to find subtle ways to get your point across. It’s very easy to say, ‘Why aren’t you angry about it?’ Oh, an angry black man? You want me to fall into that?”

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“You realise that there are people who want you to feel and articulate for them,” he says. “There are people who believe it is your duty to express their point of view or their anger. I didn’t know that before I got on the show. I just thought people were watching it and enjoying it. People – to a certain extent – have become couch protestors. They want to tweet about the thing and see someone say something and feel like they did something. I come from a world where you get up and you go do something about it.

“In South Africa the youth rose up, the people rose up,” he adds. “You didn’t tweet about the thing, you didn’t watch TV shows about the thing, you made something happen yourself. Satire was seen as an additional tool or a weapon in that arsenal.”

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/apr/02/trevor-noah-on-replacing-jon-stewart-and-changing-the-daily-show