The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Failures | Vann R. Newkirk II

Episode Date: January 15, 2024

It's Martin Luther King Jr. Day and The Daily Show honors this civil rights icon's legacy. Host Trevor Noah and correspondent, Roy Wood Jr, discuss the many ways Americans misrepresent what King stood for and guest host, Leslie Jones, goes into the streets of New York City to find out how white folks celebrate the holiday. Also, Trevor sits with journalist, Vann R. Newkirk II, to discuss how his piece in The Atlantic honors King's legacy and provides context on where he stood politically when he was alive.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John Stewart here, unbelievably exciting news. My new podcast, The Weekly Show, we're gonna be talking about the election, economics, ingredient to bread ratio on sandwiches. Listen to the weekly show with John Stewart, wherever you get your podcast. You're listening to Comedy Central. Today is Martin Luther King Day. A day when America celebrates the legacy of one of its

greatest civil rights leaders, and a day where black people get to cut in line at Chipotle. At least that's my excuse. But what is Martin Luther King Day? And how should people celebrate it? Well, for more on this, we turn to a man who has had many dreams that no one wants to hear about. Roywood Jr, everybody! Welcome, boy, welcome, welcome. Good. And to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to th. th. to th. thi. thi. thi. the the the the thi. the the thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. the the their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their thi. thi. to to tooooooooooooooooooooooooea.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a. the. their their their turn to a man who has had many dreams that no one wants to hear about. Roywood Jr. everybody. Welcome, boy. Welcome, good to have you.

Good to see you, Mandela. Look, MLK Day is a special day for America and it's a special day for me as someone who has been mistaken for Martin Luther King Jr. many times. But as we get further and further away from his life, it's easy to forget what he was really about, which means sometimes people celebrate him in a really fucked-up way. So today, I'd like to show y'all some of my favorite MLK fuckups like this one. The holiday didn't go as planned for some today. A business in Duluth, Minnesota created controversy when promoting a sale in honor of the civil rights leader.

The sign posted at the shop read, MLK Day sale 25% off everything black. the the owner says it was just misinterpreted. twenty-five percent off everything black. He was proud. He was proud. He looked good. We were celebrating that. Are you serious? For MLK Day, 25% off for black clothes?

What it should be is 100% off of black people. Free at last, pants, tops, and coats of free at last. Yeah, Roy, you know, what makes it worse is that if you read Dr. King's speeches, you'll see that he was opposed to consumerism and wasteful capitalism. That's right. Celebrating MLK Day with a sale, it's like commemorating Samuel L. Jackson day by whispering. That's not what the man stands for. It's not like in the middle of his mountaintop speech.

Dr. King just broke off of a, remember me with savings too insane to be believed. I might not get to that store, but my eyes are seeing the power of the discount. Come on, Coretta, let's roll. You know, it actually is unfortunate because it seems like some white people are out of touch with Dr. King's legacy. Oh, it's not just a white thing. In fact, Dr. King might actually be proud that on his special day, people of all colors and backgrounds have been fucking up. As we pause to honor Dr. King this year, a flyer for a local event that bears his image, is causing quite a stir. But as NBC 25, Walter Smith tells us right now, the party is now canceled.

The party promoters, nowhere to be found. This poster has a lot of people shaking their heads in disgust. It shows Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wearing a gold chain promoting a party called Freedom to Twerk. It was supposed to take place at this club, but it's been canceled. The owner says he's disgusted, there'll be no twirking here. There will be no twirking here. Sound like Gandolf in a Tyler Perry movie. There will be no twirking here. And then you know the strippers fly all over the place. Also how are you going to photoshop Dr. King with gold chains to try and make them look cool?

He was already cool. Look at these real pictures of Dr. King from back in the day. Look at him playing pool in a suit. In a silver, right, fresh from a march. That shot so cool, it doesn't matter if he misses. And here he is, making the library look cool. Stated in front of books like they stack some money. But this is my favorite Martin Luther King,

wearing sunglasses inside. Trevor, he could have taken that call in private, but he left the door open for the haters. But maybe, maybe the most popular activity on MLK Day is using his legacy to push your own agenda and no one has done it in a more interesting fashion than this guy. I believe that Gun Appreciation Day honors the legacy of Dr. King. And the truth is I think Martin Luther King would agree with me if we were alive today that if African Americans had been given the right to keep and bear arms from day one of the country's founding,

perhaps slavery might not have been a chapter in our history. Okay, okay, hold up. I'm pretty sure on Dr. King's list of priorities. Giving slaves guns comes way below not having slaves in the first place. I'm pretty sure on Dr. King's list of priorities. Giving slaves guns comes way below not having slaves in the first place. The logic, the logic makes no sense. It makes no sense. How would you do that? Do you think the slave owners would have just had a little chit-chat?

Well, we'll set them free. Oh, no, don't set them free? Let's make it interesting. Give them shotguns. Now, I will say this. If slaves did have guns, the movie roots would have only been 15 minutes long. Your name is Toby. Oh, whatever you want us to call you. So Roy, we've seen people mess it up with sales, you. the sales. the sales. Cool, what are the cool? Okay. So, Roy, we've seen people mess it up, you know, with sales or, you know, with their own

agendas. But what is the proper way to celebrate Dr. King's legacy? Listen, man, it's simple. MLK was for racial equality, economic justice, and stiastuage and sti against the exploitation of the poor. knew that one day our great nation would rise above bigotry, injustice, and poverty. And on that day, my friends, there will be twirking for everyone everywhere. Where would you and everybody? Since the Daily Show finally hired a black host, we can properly celebrate Martin Luther

King Day by asking New Yorkers how they celebrate his legacy. I think you'll live to be a black guy. Shut up! Don't interrupt me on Martin Luther King Day. That ain't cool. So, let's do this. Do you know what today is? Uh, we're lost day? Do you know what day it is today? This is Monday. What you do today? Well, today we just woke up. We just checked out of our hotel.

We haven't done much. We're going to go get coffee and we're going to walk around. So which one of those celebrates Martin Luther King Day? Well, none of, none of what we've talked about so far. You're 32 push-ups for Martin. So this ain't reparations, that's right. Give me one hand once! Yeah! That's right! What's y'all doing to celebrate? Okay.

Came to New York? That's it? That's all y'all gonna do? I saw some shows, ate some food, did some shopping. All right, I'm gonna come back to y'all on Juneteeth. And y'all better have done better. Don't you like when he, you like, hea, hea, hea, hea, hea, hea, hea, hea, hea, hea, hea, thu, thuan, thuan, thuan, thuan, thus, thi, that, that, that, that, that, that's to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to too, too, too, too, too, to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to tho, tho, tho, tho, the. the. thea, thea. the the the the the the the the thea. Come, tooooooooooan, tooan, too, know, refused to move to the back of the bus? Mm-hmm. I can remember snippets through the world news. He didn't refuse, that was Rosa Parks!

What is it? Name a famous MLK quote. I have a dream. I have a dream. And... What does he say after that? I'm not sure. Name a famous MLK quote. Besides I have a dream.

Besides I have a dream. I will pay you one million dollars. If you can tell me something else that Martin Luther King said. He told his children he loved them. Yes. Oh, million years! So, lady you do not know what he said to his children. Can we Google it? No! What the f- I have a dream that one day, that's all I got.

I have a dream that one day white people will actually know what's in that damn speech. Okay, just name five black people. Eddie Murphy. That's the only black person you know Eddie Murphy? Byron Leftwich. Who the fuck? Who the fuck? Byrne left which is an NFL as an offensive black coat.

Don't nobody know him. You just making up names now. So how you are you celebrating Martin Luther King? Um, not too sure. So that's what he died for, man? For you, this would be out here, just not doing nothing on this date? Nah, I'm just kidding you. You can do whatever you want, man, you black. We're going to go see the Lion King.

Okay. There's got King and the tie- I mean, that's as close as you can get, I'll take it. The freedom and liberty to go about and do what we want to do. That's our celebration. See, that's a quote from a black woman right there. That's right. Freedom and the liberty.

She earned that. That's right. I'm just aing about, but I don't crack. You still need lotion though. I'm still looking lotion. John Stewart here. Unbelievably exciting news. My new podcast, The Weekly Show. We're going to be talking about the election, economics,

ingredient to bread ratio, on sandwiches. Listen to the weekly show with John Stewart, wherever you get your podcast. My guest tonight is an amazing writer at the Atlantic who helped produce a special commemorative issue of the magazine called King a look at the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. Please welcome Van Nukerk. Welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. I've been a fan of your writing for so long. You touch on so many different topics, you know, from Black Panther through to racism

in America, the Second Amendment. One of the more interesting conversations that I got started because of your writing was specifically about teachers being armed and you argued that in its very essence it goes against the Second Amendment. Why would you make that argument? Yeah, so the Second Amendment is supposed to be this thing that protects people from the government. The whole entire ethos of it is you get people, you give them guns and you give them guns so they can build a militia to protect themselves against tyranny.

And so you have teachers who are state agents, paid by the state, who are taking care of our kids, who have sometimes done bad things to those kids, and you're giving them guns. So, especially in Florida, you have a guy who was known to use the in-word with his students and was suspended for doing it, you give that guy a gun. For what? That's the tyrannical government. Yeah. I never thought of that as an idea. I go, but you know, it's one of those ideas where people go.

This seems like a thrown. thi, it's, it's, it's, it's, thi, thi, thi, thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. they. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi's, thi. thi. thi. thi. the the the the the the they. they. they. they. they. they. they. they. they. thi. thi. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. thi. You. thi. thi. thi. thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. And, thi. And, th like, just give the people more guns, and then it solves the guns. Because if everyone has a gun, then I guess it means no one has a gun. I don't know how it works. I'll give my gun a gun. Yeah, you give your gun a gun. That's the most important, because guns don't kill people. People kill people.

So what about killing guns? No one talks about gun-on-gun violence. You have an interesting way of looking at the world, and this issue of the Atlantic, I think, looks at Martin Luther King from so many different places and through so many different lenses, which I really found interesting. Martin Luther King is one of those figures in America that I've always felt is mythologized and oftentimes misunderstood. And it feels like you've captured that in this article. Why did you think it was th th think it was th th th th th th th th th th th th th think it was th th th th thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi. thi. tho th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. ta. ta.. ta. ta. ta. ta. ta. ta. ta. ta. ta. ta. ta. ta. ta. ta. ta. ta. ta. ta like you've captured that in this article. Why did you think it was necessary

to have an entire article about Martin Luther King, Jr.? So what we want to do is challenge people. You know, we want people to read every single article in this issue and come away thinking about something new, something they had never thought about, something they never even fathomed about Dr. King. And what that does as a whole is so many times politicians bring up, or people who will have an agenda bring up Dr. King, they quote the dream speech. They do the same thing, okay? He want us to live in a colorblind society where our kids can go to school together.

They quote this one part, but they don't quote the part about him being against the Vietnam war. They don't say his speech, his letter from Birmingham Jail, where he talks about the white moderate and nobody asks themselves, am I the white moderate? So nobody, everybody now is pro-king and not racist, but nobody's reading King now for how to be anti-racist. It's interesting that you say that because there was a specific article or piece of it that connected with me written by you in this, and it was specifically about the idea of Martin Luther King and his assassination. And you say here, in the official story told to children, King's assassination is the transformational tragedy in a victorial

to overcome, but in the true accounting accounting accounting assassination was one of a host of reactionary assaults by a country against a revolution, and those assaults were astonishingly successful. That's an interesting point of view, because many people feel like Martin Luther King being assassinated was the beginning of the great journey that got black people to where they needed to be, and you're arguing that it ended a revolution that was starting. How do you prove that, or why do you believe that? So I remember when I was in school and I had a teacher who told me, straight up,

that the civil rights movement was victorious, that we won. That we won. And what I could never reconcile was, win if Dr. King was assassinated while protesting? How did we win the civil rights movement? How are we victorious if while protesting for higher wages for sanitation workers in Memphis, he was assassinated? And his poor people's movement was derailed. So I always want to revisit that point.

So when I wrote that essay I was listening to Nina Simone's song, Why the King of Love is Dead. She wrote it three days, I was listening to Nina Simone's song, Why The King of Love is Dead. She wrote it three days after he was assassinated. And she's talking about will the country stand or fall. She's talking about a country that seemed then on the verge of an apocalypse. And so I really wanted to go back to that moment and see how we get from that moment, where you're talking about the end end, the the thiiiiii, thi, thi, thi, thi, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, thi, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and.., and, and., the the the the the the the the the the the the the.a.a.a.s.s.s.s.s. thr. thr. thrownea. thrownea. th. thrownea. thrownea. tha. th thrownea. th thea. talking about the end of the world, the black community in shambles, and tears, and unrest and riots.

And how you go from there to here and 50 years and say we won? How does it happen? People would say, but Van, look at how much progress black people have made since Martin Luther King. Surely things have gotten better, black people on the up in America. th. th. th. th. th. th. And, th. And, th. And, and, and, th. And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, th. And, and, th. And, and, and, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. tham, thi, and, thi, thi, th. th. th. th. th. And, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, to thin, to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to the the the thin, the the the in America. Well, some studies are showing that that may not be the case. So we've got some studies out from the Economic Policy Institute that are saying that black wealth, black home ownership rates, segregation in schools haven't gone anywhere in 50 years. In 50 years?

So what are we talking about here? We're saying that the gap between blacks and whites now in terms of wealth is just so staggering......... thiiiiiiiiiiiii. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, so thi, so, so th, so th, so th, so th, so th, so th, so th. So, so th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. th. th. th. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, s, s, s, s s s s s s s' thi. thi. thi. thi. thiiii. thi. thi. thii. thi. thi. thi. thi, s,that the gap between blacks and whites now in terms of wealth is just so staggering that it's how do you even build policy to bridge that gap? Education has risen, but our kids are now in schools that are as segregated as they were at 1970. So what are we talking about? That's an interesting point of view and I guess I know a lot of people argue back on that and they'll say well, I mean, Obama became president fan, so I mean, that's a that's progress, isn't it? Yeah, Obama was president eight years and now will we ever have another black president?

Will you ever have another president is the question I ask? Here's something that I that I really connected, and I guess because of South Africa's history and also because it is International Women's Day, is this beautiful quote in the article. Women have been the backbone of the whole civil rights movement. This popular narrative of the civil rights movement too often relies on great men, the great men version of history, King, Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, other names, you know, and it ignores the importance of women who also organized and led the movement and shows how their contributions have been sidelined, hidden in plain sight.

That is a powerful narrative that many people forget. And that is, Coretta Scott King wasn't just a sidekick. Why do you think it's so important to acknowledge these women and what were they instrumental in doing in many movements? Yeah, I learned a lot reading that essay from from Gene Dio Harris. She was talking about Coretta, Coretta, Scott King, and how Martin's development politically came from conversation with Coretta. So a lot of what he was doing was sort of mansplaining Coretta, right? He was going out and saying, okay, she was against the Vietnam War years before he was. Wow.

She, when they were courting each other and when they were still dating, she was the one who was sort of giving him these economic ideas, passing him along text about what to read and how to learn and grow. So you look at, if you look at Coretta Scott King, not just as Kings help me. to to th. to th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the th. th, as th, as th, as th, as th, as th, as th, as th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, the, the the thi, the, them, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the their, their, their, their one was thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi.ean, thi.oomoomorrow, thean, tomorrow, tooean, thean, thoomorrow, thean, thean, thiolomeome So you look at, if you look at Coretta, Coretta Scott King, not just as Kings helped me. As someone who was an activist in our own right, you start looking at just all these other women in the movement who did so much. Rosa Parks, who wasn't operative.

We're taught in school that she was a tired old lady who sat down. She was out there, she built the same organizing structures that actually King relied on when he was doing the boycotts. Wow. Those were built by black women against sexual assault. That's powerful. The same things, yeah. And so when you look at these stories, how do you think it plays out? Because Martin Luther King exists in a place where some people use him to stage a protest and others go, we should use them to sell trucks in America. Everyone sees him in a different light. If Martin Luther King were around today from what you have read and what you've learned, like how happy do you think he would be? Would he think people have reached a mountaintop? I think from reading him, his thing was never being satisfied with where we are because

there's always space. The mountaintop in that speech wasn't the place where we need to be in terms of race. The mountaintop was having the vision to see where we needed to go and I think that vision was that the road is ever everlasting. The moral arc of the universe is always bending towards justice. And we bend it. So I think King would be protesting, regardless of whatever situation is on the ground right now in America,

he would be protesting. Because that's what an activist does. They were always agitating. And so that's what I want people to take away from the magazine is that his activism was always agitating. It was always. That. That's that. That's that. That's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's thiiiavahs. that's that's thi, thi, thi, their their their their their thi. their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their. their. their. their. theiriiiii, theiri, theiri, the theiri, the the the the the the thi. thi. thi. thi. thiiii. thiiiiiii. thiiii. thiii. thii. thi. the the the the take away from the magazine is that his activism was always agitating, was always moving forward and progressing. And you see in the last year of his life before he was assassinated, he sat down and thought, how do I move this forward? And he came forward with the most ambitious program to fight poverty, to fight militarism,

and to fight racism across the globe. And that was King. That was King. It's an amazing article. Thank you so much for being here. It's an amazing issue of the Atlantic. King. Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe

by searching The Daily Show, wherever you get your podcasts. Watch the Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Fairmount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast. John Stewart here. Unbelievably exciting news. My new podcast, The Weekly Show. We're going to be talking about the election. Economics. Ingredient to Bread Ratio on sandwiches. Listen to the weekly show with John Stewart wherever you get your podcast.