Ilana Glazer Has Apologised For ‘Yas Queen’ And Her Role In Climate Change
"That was some white woman ignorance."
Celebrities are continuing to repent to Ziwe for cultural crimes, and Broad City‘s Ilana Glazer is the latest to brave the confessional.
The unique talk show, which is currently screening its second season in the US, is the lovechild of Ziwe Fumodoh, a former writer on Desus and Mero. Her 2020 Instagram Live series, Baited, featured interviews with ‘cancelled’ celebrities like Alison Roman and Caroline Calloway, where she went where people tend not to go — the spectre of racial discomfort.
Her talk show is conducted in much the same vein (albeit with producers and femme furnishings), so who better to have on her show than Ilana Glazer, one half of the 2010s millennial series Broad City? Following the lives of fictional 20-somethings Ilana and Abbi — two unambitious and generally useless Jewish-American girls in NYC — Broad City was not without it’s more iffy elements like Ilana’s penchant for hoop earrings and dabbling in African-American Vernacular English (AAVE).
Arguably, Ilana was deliberately made ‘problematic’ — her character skewered the white, hyperliberal millennial to the point that those around her pointed it out. For example, at one point, the character Ilana’s friend Jaime — a gay man from Guatemala — says to Ilana, “It’s almost like you are stealing the identity from people who fought hard for it against colonial structures”.
But the show seemed less self-aware about its ‘Yas Queen’ catchphrase — pulled from AAVE with origins in queer ballroom culture — which Glazer apologised for appropriating.
“Would you like to apologise to any marginalised communities, for any things you’ve ever done? she asked Glazer, and she does all of her guests, including Chet Hanks. “I would like to apologise to marginalised communities for anything I’ve ever done,” she declared.
“That’s so not specific enough,” Ziwe responded. “Come on, get into the weeds.”
“OK, let’s talk about ‘Yas Queen’,” Glazer said, after shuffling in her seat. “That was some white woman ignorance. We didn’t know what we were doing there. It was in the ether. It was appropriation, and I’m sorry for it.”
“This is a a-ha moment”, Ziwe responded, after which we were treated to this stunning graphic design moment.
But the apologies didn’t stop there: Glazer was also tasked to apologise to a small child for her inaction on climate change.
“Christopher, I’m so sorry,” Glazer said to the small boy, who appeared nonplussed. “You deserve to dream, and I’ve just done nothing to make the planet a safer place for you to do that. I’m so sorry, Christopher.” In response, Christopher told Ziwe that he felt “disgusted.”
Watch Ziwe’s full interview with Ilana Glazer below.