Trevor Noah and False Notions of Understanding

Last updated on: December 7, 2016 at 6:05 pm by Guest Contributor

Trevor Noah and False Notions of Understanding 2016-12-07T18:05:21-05:00 Guest Contributor

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by Matt Vega

I wish white liberals would stop telling us the election of Trump signals how “insulated,” “tone deaf,” and “polarized” we actually are.

Were we shocked by dude’s election?

Kind of. But not because we weren’t aware that a large number of folks supported Trump. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by over 2.5 million votes. It’s not like we were shocked for “no apparent reason.” We (PoC) weren’t shocked because we’ve lived in some “insular bubble” where we didn’t know how white folks reason and think. That logic is so weak. If you are a PoC and you live in America, you’re not surprised by the slickness of racism, the logic of racists, the stereotypes you have to defy, and the bubbles we live in. You live in it. Watch it on the news. Hear it at work. See it in your teachers. We swim in it.

Stop trying to analyze us. What you’re basically telling us is to compromise with racists. And no, sorry sir- we are NOT going to do it. Not now. Not ever.

That’s my biggest beef with Trevor Noah’s interview with Tomi Lahren. She has nothing new or substantive to contribute to serious issues in this country related to race besides tired lies of American exceptionalism and meritocracy. It’s played out. I’ve heard it before. I’ve tried being gracious to understand it before. It’s just straight up wrong and I’m tired of y’all telling us there’s something inherently good about considering these as legitimate as other narratives.

We are entering into a Post-truth world. Donald Trump makes up facts, doesn’t need to corroborate them, and gets defended by his supporters and surrogates. There’s a pastor at Wheaton who flippantly dismissed CNN, HuffPost, and MSNBC as illegitimate sources of media. Now, don’t get me wrong- I have my own views on these, but to throw away anything non-conservative as fictitious isn’t a good starting point for fair and honest dialogue. It’s a recipe for naive support to fascism.

We have to detox from this notion that truth lies somewhere in between irrationality and reason. That we have to live “in the middle” of both of these worlds to “get it.” All of us think we stand in the middle of two existing spheres, not realizing how bent we actually are. Truth doesn’t compromise with ignorance, injustice, nor deception. It remains unequivocally faithful to itself.

So, no. I don’t find it inherently good to try and reason with fascists and their supporters. I find it mentally and emotionally harmful.

Do all of us a favor, “allies”:

Have your virtuous dialogues with Lahren, Bannon, Trump, Coulter and others. Then stay there. Please don’t come back.

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