Jon Stewart on Rachel Dolezal: ‘WHAAAAAAT?’

Image by Screenshot/Daily Show

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:

Anne Cohen was the Forward’s deputy digital media editor. When she’s not looking for the secret Jewish history of Voodoo in New Orleans, or making lists about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she writes for The Assimilator. She graduated from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism with an M.S. magazine concentration in 2012.

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