Sounds About Right

[Content Note: Racism.]

As you may recall, I'm not exactly a huge fan of Jon Stewart. And one of the primary reasons that I increasingly lost ardor for him and The Daily Show over the years is because, in my experience, people who are hostile to the very idea of identity politics tend to be pretty hostile to the people with those identities when they advocate for inclusion themselves. (Leave it to the white dude comedians, okay, people? Geez.) Case in point:

[Wyatt Cenac, a black man], who was a writer and correspondent on The Daily Show for over four years, spoke with Marc Maron on his "WTF" podcast about what it was like working with Stewart. Maron asked, "And you got along with Jon?" "Naw," replied Cenac. While Cenac initially wanted to see Stewart as a father figure, he didn't get that. What he remembers instead is a moment when Stewart screamed at him in front of the entire staff. "There had, in my experience, never been an explosion like that," he said.

This happened back in the summer of 2011, when Stewart was roundly pillorying the 2012 presidential hopefuls, including one Herman Cain. He made fun of Cain by doing a "voice." At the time Cenac was on a field assignment, and watched the bit from home. "I don't think this is from a malicious place, but I think this is from a naïve, ignorant place," he remembered thinking. "Oh no, you just did this and you didn't think about it. It was just the voice that came into your head. And so it bugged me."

...Cenac, who was the only black writer there at the time, voiced his concerns during the writer's meeting. "I've got to be honest, and I just spoke from my place," said Cenac. "I wasn't here when it all happened. I was in a hotel. And I cringed a little bit. It bothered me." He wanted them to drop the bit and said that it reminded him of Kingfish, a character Tim Moore played on Amos 'n' Andy. He remembers:

[Stewart] got incredibly defensive. I remember he was like, What are you trying to say? There's a tone in your voice. I was like, "There's no tone. It bothered me. It sounded like Kingfish." And then he got upset. And he stood up and he was just like, "Fuck off. I'm done with you." And he just started screaming that to me. And he screamed it a few times. "Fuck off! I'm done with you." And he stormed out. And I didn't know if I had been fired.

The fight carried on at Stewart's office and was only stopped when one of the office dogs began pawing at them. (Aww.) Eventually, the show had to go on, and Cenac remembers going outside to a baseball field and having a breakdown. "I was shaking, and I just sat there by myself on the bleachers and fucking cried. And it's a sad thing. That's how I feel. That's how I feel in this job. I feel alone," he said.

I'm so sorry that happened to Wyatt Cenac, and, because there are so many people who are straight-up calling him a liar, I also want to say that I believe him.

And I don't believe him just because I think Jon Stewart is kind of a jerk (although I do), but because I have been a woman who has been treated the same way in the same situation, and because I am a white person who has been precisely the same kind of ass that Jon Stewart was when I was called out on something by a person of color.

I believe Wyatt Cenac, because I have experienced exactly this dynamic, on either side of the privileged and marginalized power imbalance.

And who I don't believe is anyone who would claim to have never experienced it. Who doesn't recognize themselves in at least one half of that story, if not both.

Anyway. The moral of this story is that social commentators who distance themselves from accountability because "I'm only a comedian" are not trustworthy. Comedy is meant to be a weapon against the powerful, not a shield from criticism made by people to whom you're ostensibly an ally.