Late night conscience Jon Stewart had been absent from television during the two weeks of unrest in Ferguson, enjoying his vacation as Missouri and cable news burned.
Back on Tuesday, the “Daily Show” host gave his take on the horrible situation surrounding the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown and the fallout that followed, which of course started out with a series of Fox News clips illustrating cluelessness at its finest.
See video: Talib Kweli Rips Apart CNN’s Ferguson Coverage: ‘We Live in a World Run by White Supremacy’
But there was more to it than just Fox bashing: Stewart used a horrifying mash-up of Fox talking heads denying that the story in Ferguson (which has a 94 percent white police department enforcing its laws in a 63 percent black town) wasn’t about race, to discuss the broader issue of white privilege in American.
“This isn’t all about just one man killed in one town,” he explained. “It’s about how people of color, no matter their socioeconomic standing, face obstacles in this country with surprising grace. Look at how upset you all get about certain things…”
Also read: Black TV Producer Wrongly Detained in Beverly Hills Says ‘Ferguson Resonated In My Mind’
Cue the somehow-not-a-parody clip montage of coverage of the “War on Christmas,” and then back to Stewart:
“Remember, you were furious that America’s 11-month long celebration of Christmas wasn’t enough. But now, if you can, imagine that instead of having to suffer the indignity of a Festivus pole blocking something [a baby Jesus display] you could have just set up in your own yard anyway, imagine instead of that, on a pretty consistent basis, you can’t get a fucking cab, even though you’re a neurosurgeon, because you’re black,” he proposed. “I guarantee you that every person of color in this country has faced an indignity, from the ridiculous to the grotesque to the sometimes fatal, at some point in their, I’m going to say the last couple of hours, because of their skin color.”
Stewart told a story about a black “Daily Show” correspondent being stopped by NYC police, who chose to harass said correspondent despite the fact that he was wearing a suit, and the white correspondent with whom he was traveling happened to be dressed like a homeless elf.
“The Daily Show” continued to address the situation in Ferguson — and the juxtaposition of white privilege and black harassment — in the next segment, during which Michael Che received a reprieve from the police only once he retreated to outer space.