Jon Stewart gets what many refuse to acknowledge
Jon Stewart in a nine minute segment (shrunk to 5 minutes above) shows an understanding of the race issue and how it is analyzed by both the government and the media.
“For every bus bending the arc of the moral universe towards justice,” Jon Stewart said. “There is another bus coming in the opposite direction trying really hard to bend that motherf*cker back.”
Stewart played the infamous clip of the University of Oklahoma Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) fraternity’s racist chant that went viral. He followed the clip with a clip from University of Oklahoma linebacker Eric Striker’s angry video response and that followed by Striker’s apology for the outburst. Stewart wanted to show an important point. He played a video apology from Eric Striker that came before any written apology, let alone video apology from the perpetrators of the racial incident.
Jon Stewart went much deeper as he continued to use the media to illustrate how a narrative can be created that is anathema to reality. He showed Joe Scarborough and Bill Kristol blaming rap and popular culture for the actions of SAE members.
“The kids on that bus weren’t repeating a rap song that they had heard,” Jon Stewart said. “They were gleefully performing one of their fraternity’s old let’s call them anti negro spirituals featuring a word that predates rap and probably folk and thought. Black rappers did not introduce that word into the vernacular. And second of all how comes when conservatives talk about African Americans they say ‘These people need to take responsibility for themselves. Pull up those pants. Get a job.’ but when white people do something racist they are all ‘You can’t blame them. How can those children know wrong from right after being driven to madness by the irresistible power of the hipity hopity.'”
Stewart again used the media to highlight the consistent unending series of racist events. He then showed Right Wing media stating that these events are but isolated incidences inasmuch as they are constant.
Jon Stewart illustrated a stunning reality about the Department of Justice report on Ferguson. He said, “Even the Department of Justice Ferguson report as comprehensive a catalog of race based predation as anyone is going to find, is an invitation to bend over backwards to negate the role of race.” Stewart then showed a Fox News clip where Wall Street Journal Foreign Affairs Columnist Bret Stephens said that the report did not show systemic or institutional racism but a “blood sucking local government that is trying to get every ounce of revenue that it can.” To which Stewart responds, “By overwhelmingly harassing black people.”
Jon Stewart finds it ironic that Right Wing media consistently use really isolated incidents to demonize selected groups. Yet, a string of incidents do not make a pattern to them.
Stewart uses Megyn Kelly’s own words to illustrate the lack of deeper thinking. She states that no company or government email could hold up against the scrutiny of checked emails. Racist statements and inappropriate statements would likely be found and used to taint a whole company. She is likely correct. The issue is that she does not see the big problem of that statement being true. Jon’s point in itself is probative. We have a problem.