Jon Stewart Rejects ‘Censorship and Penalties’ to End Anti-Semitism as He Tackles Kyrie, Kanye, Chappelle Controversies
Jon Stewart pushed back against “censorship and penalties” being used as a way to end anti-Semitism when addressing controversies involving Kanye West, now going by Ye, Kyrie Irving, and his “very good friend” Dave Chappelle.
Appearing on The Late Show on Tuesday, Stewart reunited with Stephen Colbert and argued silencing prejudice is not a winning strategy to end said prejudice.
While Stewart did not defend offensive comments from Irving or Ye, he did defend Chappelle. The comedian was accused of “popularizing” anti-Semitism by the Anti-Defamation League.
“I don’t believe that censorship and penalties are the way to end antisemitism or to not gain understanding. I don’t believe in that. I think it’s the wrong way to approach it,” Stewart said.
He also praised Chappelle for pointing out that it “shouldn’t be this hard to talk about things.” Stewart called the comment “constructive” as he called for more discussion around antisemitism.
Stewart argued comedians play with “tropes” to create a “shorthand” with audiences.
“We play with tropes because everybody has prejudice. Comics rely on those prejudices as a shorthand for our material. Even the wokeist of comics plays with tropes to a certain extent,” he said.
On Irving’s suspension from the Brooklyn Nets, Stewart dismissed the notion of “penalizing somebody for having a thought.”
Stewart argued:
This is a grown-ass man and to say, ‘We’re going to put you in a time out, you’re going to sit in a corner and stare at the wall until you no longer believe the Jews control the international banking system.’ We have to get past this in the country. People think Jews control Hollywood. People think Jews control the banks. And to pretend that they don’t and to not deal with it in a straightforward manner, we’ll never gain any kind of understanding with each other.
Stewart pushed back against attempts to “cover it up” when it comes to anti-Semitic statements from public figures like Ye and Irving.
“Look at it from a Black perspective,” the former Daily Show host said. “It’s a culture that feels its wealth has been extracted by different groups – Whites, Jews. Whether it’s true or not isn’t the issue, that’s the feeling in that community. And if you don’t understand that’s where it’s coming from then you can’t sit down and explain that being in an industry isn’t the same as having a nefarious and controlling interest in that industry.”
Watch above via CBS
