Image by Comedy Central

By Lior Zaltzman June 19, 2015

You might have already gotten used to us sharing Jon Stewart’s amazing jokes about news-worthy item du jour, and let’s face it, since he’s leaving the Daily Show soon, we want to share as much as possible. But last night, Jon Stewart’s regular sobering dose of truth came unmasked with humor.

“Sorry, no jokes tonight,” Stewart declared in his opening monologue.

Because as he said: “We once again have to peer into the abyss of the depraved violence that we do to each other in the nexus of a gaping racial wound that just won’t heal yet we pretend doesn’t exist…” and yet “we won’t do jacks—t.”

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It’s the disparity in our reaction to that internal racial violence and our reaction to “Islamic terrorism”, that blows Stewart’s mind.

When Al-Qaeda attacks, he argues, we don’t hesitate to invade countries and start wars. But when a white guy goes into a church and shoots nine people, we chalk it up to crazy.

“There’s not nuance here, this is black and white,” Jon Stewart says. “This wasn’t a tornado, this was a racist”.

Charleston still is ridden with “racial wallpaper”, Stewart added, dumbfounded, with streets named after confederate generals and buildings that fly confederate flags, and yet “the white guy is the one who feels his country is taken away from him.”

Watch the whole speech here:

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