Speaker
Hasan Minhaj of “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.”
Event
2016 Radio and Television Correspondents Association dinner.
Date Speech Given
June 15, 2016.
Notes on the Speech
“The Radio and Television Correspondents' Association held its 72nd annual awards dinner at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, D.C. Hasan Minhaj, a comedian, actor, and senior correspondent on “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” served as the guest entertainer for the dinner.” (YouTube)
Video
The video may be found here and in the list of all stories published by kur group.
Transcript
What we saw in Orlando was one of the ugliest cocktails of the problems that we still see here in America, a cocktail of homophobia, xenophobia, lack of access to mental health care, and sheer lack of political will. All of us satirists, we've all been yelling out, crying out for change. The sad reality is that we are all complicit in what happened.
Every day, in our workplaces, in our homes, in our religious institutions, there is covert or overt discrimination or phobia towards people of different religious, racial, or sexual walks of life. We just sit there and we let it happen because it doesn't affect our bottom line. "I didn't say it, Hasan. I don't think it's that way. They said it, okay? It's not that simple, Hasan," and we just go on with our lives because it didn't affect our status quo.
The sad reality is stuff like this is going to continue to happen unless we recognize that civil liberties are an all-or-nothing game. A rising tide lifts all boats. It's not pick or choose. Whether you like it or not, we all have to step up and fight for each other. Otherwise the whole thing is a sham. Until we do that, Hijabis are going to get harassed in the streets, members from the trans community are going to be demonized for using the bathroom, and my brothers and sisters in the African American community, their spines are going to continue to get shattered in the back of paddy wagons until we stand up and say something.
The thing that hurts me the most is I wish I would have done more. To my brothers and sisters in the LGBTQ community and every marginalized community, I'm sorry I didn't do more.
The same goes for Congress. We look to you guys as our leaders. You make almost $200,000 a year to write rules to make our society better, not tweet, not tell us about your thoughts and prayers, to write rules to make our society better. Ultimately it comes down to money and influence.
Right now, since 1998, the NRA has given $3.7 million to Congress. There are 294 sitting members of Congress that have accepted contributions from the NRA, and that doesn't even include the millions of dollars from outside lobbying. Before I get up here in my liberal bubble and I ask for gun control and universal background checks and banning assault rifles, we've got to be able to have the conversation. Right now, specifically, Congress has blocked legislation for the CDC to study gun-related violence. We can't even talk about the issue with real statistics and facts. I don't know if this is like a Kickstarter thing, but if $3.7 million can buy political influence to take lives, if we raise $4 million, would you guys take that to save lives?
I don't know. Ultimately I just got to ask you this. Look, when I got into comedy, when you guys got into media, and when you guys got into politics, we wanted to do the best work we could possibly do. Is this what you want your legacy to be, that you were a could-have-done-something Congress, but you didn't because of outside lobbying, that you were complicit in the deaths of thousands of Americans?
I know being a member of Congress is hard. You got to placate your base. You got to look out for reelection. You got to answer to lobbyists, but please, persevere, because our thoughts and prayers are with you.
Good night.
Transcriptionist
Nancy Jones.
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