Aziz Ansari: On Donald Trump & The Rise of Casual Racism
Aziz Ansari made history on an already historic day.
Ansari was SNL’s first ever host of South Asian descent on January 21, 2017. This, of course, was one day after Donald Trump’s inauguration and on the same day as the Women’s March, the largest ever protest in US history, boasting a global showing of over 2.9M people across roughly 600 cities, according to conservative estimates.
Pretty cool to know, though, he’s probably at home right now watching a brown guy make fun of him though, right?
After acknowledging that an entire gender came out in full force to protest his election, Ansari asked those who did not support Trump to not stereotype or demonize the 63 Million people who voted for Trump, noting that many likely voted with reservations.
As long as we treat each other with respect and remember that ultimately we’re all Americans, we’ll be fine.
He also addressed a growing and vocal contingent of casual racism or “lowercase kkk,” as he put it.
Casual and overtly racist and misogynistic events have markedly been on the rise since Trump was elected in November 2016: swastikas spray-painted on storefronts in Philadelphia, middle school students chanting “build the wall” in Royal Oak, Michigan, black students being added to a “Daily Lynching” hate group at University of Pennsylvania, a CT GOP Official charged for sexually assaulting a woman with the claim that he “no longer had to be politically correct“, a church sign in MD written in Spanish defaced with the words “Trump Nation Whites Only”, Muslim woman attacked in California and another threatened with being lit on fire in Michigan and many other events.
After addressing the rise of such events, Ansari made a plea to Trump to make a speech to denounce such events and to strike a tone similar to that of then-President George W. Bush after the 9/11 attacks.
George W. Bush made a speech after 9/11, and it really helped. Things changed. This what he said in his speech, and I’m paraphrasing slightly. He said, “Islam is peace. The perpetrators of these attacks, they don’t represent Islam. They represent war and violence. Our enemies are not our Muslim brothers and sisters. Our enemies are a network of radical terrorists.” And everyone applauded. Democrats, Republicans, it didn’t matter. Because it’s not about politics. It’s about basic human decency and remembering why the country was founded in the first place.
Ansari ended his monologue directly addressing the power of social change.
Because if you look at our country’s history, change doesn’t come from presidents. Change comes from large groups of angry people. And if Day 1 is any indication, you are part of the largest group of angry people I have ever seen.
You keep doing you, Aziz.
Read the full transcript here.
Watch the full monologue here:
