November 14, 2016

Thank you, Dean Obeidallah and Jason Johnson, who appeared on CNN's Newsroom this morning. Theywere asked to respond to Dave Chappelle on Saturday Night Live:

JASON JOHNSON (THE ROOT): Look, I'm one of those modern sort of millennial gen Xers people. I didn't watch "Saturday night live" as much as I used to but I will say there is nothing to laugh about when the president-elect has picked a white supremacist with ties to terrorist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan to be his senior adviser. I'm not laughing. In fact, people are afraid and concerned. I think the fact Dave Chappelle said look, we will give him a chance, he gives us a chance and 24 hours later, Donald Trump is attacking the press and putting Steve Bannon in that position, this is not something to laugh about. People need to be concerned. People need to push back against this kind of Presidency. If we laugh at it and normalize it, there's a problem.

DEAN OBEIDALLAH: Comedy is cathartic for us. It takes away some of the power and fear that Donald Trump is wielding. I'm not saying you don't take it seriously. We do. We have a lot to lose. This is very personal. Forbid there's a terrorist attack on u.s. Soil by a Muslim, we have no idea what Donald Trump will do to us. Internment camps could happen. I hope they have free wifi, that's the only thing I'm looking at as an upside. We have to work together. Communities of color, progressives who believe in this. We are not defeated by this election. We cannot surrender. We will continue to fight, we will prevail but it will take a lot of work.

...Hey, there's not two sides to anti-Semitism. There are not two sides to anti-Muslim bigotry or demonizing latinos. There's one side, the right side. It's wrong. That's what we have to hear from Trump supporters and surrogates. Get Steve Bannon out of the administration of Donald Trump if you want to be President of all the people.

Yeah I'm with you on the rejection of both-siderism. But Donald Trump will never do enough to be President of all the people. That ship sailed the day he announced his candidacy. He chose to run a White supremacist campaign and that will be his legacy for all time.

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