TV

Jessica Williams Calls Bullshit On All The Hype Over Jon Stewart And The Confederate Flag

"For some reason black people need a white person to get their message out."

by Meg Watson  23 June 2015

Want more Junkee in your life? Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook so you always know where to find us.

Last week Jon Stewart’s emotional response to the latest mass shooting in the US went viral. Purposefully delivering “no jokes” on the topic, he instead issued a heartfelt declaration of grief and suggested the violence, brought by a white supremacist, was indicative of the “gaping racial wound” still present in American society. At the very least, he asked that the nation rightfully acknowledge that.

In the time since, the US has responded strongly. Shockingly, they haven’t quite found a way to bridge that deep racial rift — an idealistic monologue wasn’t quite enough  — there has been some headway made on one particular issue. Towards the end of Stewart’s segment he noted the Confederate flag still flies over the Southern state where the attack took place. “The roads are named for Confederate generals and the white guy’s the one who feels his country’s being taken away from him,” he said. Now there’s a renewed debate on whether they should ditch the flag and it’s dominating both the public and political debate.

This is obviously great. The flag was literally used a symbol of those fighting in favour of slavery in the American Civil War and has enjoyed wide use by white supremacist groups ever since. The fact that it’s still displayed proudly outside government buildings — as well as part of the official flags of Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi — is frankly pretty incredible and anything that works to undo that is welcome.

But here’s the thing: this criticism isn’t new — African Americans have been making this point for decades. The NAACP regularly boycotts South Carolina officials and events for the use of the flag, it’s been regular fodder for black comedians like Chris Rock, and as Daily Show correspondent Jessica Williams pointed out in last night’s episode, all this is probably something to keep in mind when furiously patting Jon Stewart on the back.

“If we’re having this much trouble removing a symbol of racism, we’re in deep dookie if we want to remove actual racism,” she said. “It’s a deeply complex systemic cancer that’s spread throughout our nation and it’s going to be a long active process … For some reason black people need a white person to get their message out.”

Okay. Few things: the fact that Jessica Williams manages to criticise The Daily Show‘s trademark liberal takedowns from Jon Stewart with another trademark Daily Show takedown is deeply meta, and in my mind makes her all the more deserving of the hosting gig she doesn’t at all want. It’s also probably important to mention that we’re also contributing to this by writing a ‘Jessica Williams Takes Down…’ piece about something which knowingly critiques the whole ‘Jon Stewart Takes Down…’ style of modern media. AND there’s the fact that I myself am another liberal white person working to promote the message of a person of colour. I get it. Save your comments. The world is deeply flawed and everything means nothing.

But to distract you from all that, here’s a piece which aired on Last Week Tonight around the same time Williams was saying all this. Introducing “John Oliver’s Epic Takedown Of The Confederate Flag”:

–