Jon Stewart on Rachel Dolezal: ‘WHAAAAAAT?’
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Anne Cohen June 16, 2015
Jon Stewart doesn’t tape on Fridays, so the universe had to wait until Monday night to hear his insight into the Rachel Dolezal scandal, which caused the internet to implode over the weekend.
In case you haven’t been following (or spent your weekend binge watching “Orange is the New Black”) : Rachel Dolezal, head of the Spokane, Washington, chapter of the NAACP, was discovered to have spent 10 years living as a black woman despite being very, very white. (Or, per Stewart: “Czech, Swedish and German? That’s really f**king white.”)
Read: The Original Rachel Dolezal Was a Jew Named Mezz Mezirow
In typical Jon Stewart fashion, the comedian started the segment with a succinct sentiment: “WHAAAAAAAT?”
He then called on the Daily Show’s “senior black correspondent” to explain the situation: Welcome, Jordan Klepper!(Also very, very white.)
Thankfully, actual black correspondent Jessica Williams stepped in to give one of the best analyses of the situation so far: “We don’t need oppression cosplay. We need allies, not replacements.”
Watch the whole segment here:
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
