W. Kamau Bell: Semi-Prominent Negro

"And people listen to Angela Davis

because she is a strong black woman

who is never afraid to tell the truth

and to speak her mind

and to demand justice and liberation for all people.

Angela Davis is a rad American woman."

Daddy, am I a rad American woman?

- Yes. - Is Mama a rad American woman?

- Definitely. - Are you a rad American woman?

I mean, I-I c--I-- I'm not a woman,

so I really can't be.

It's okay, Daddy. I still love you.

Thanks.

All right, what should we read next?

How 'bout this?

Moses, AKA When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom.

- Mm, not again. - Okay.

Oh, your favorite,

Red, a Crayon Story.

It's a perfect allegory

for how we should treat transgender people.

Oh, The Case for Loving,

about the Supreme Court case of Loving versus Virginia.

Without this case, our family wouldn't even be possible.

- Nuh-uh. - Okay.

Oh, here's a new one,

Monald Mump: The Mexican Eating Mumble-Mouthed Monster.

- - Mm.

Yeah, too scary.

Can we have something new?

Like that book you read to me when Mama wasn't home.

Oh, no, uh, sweetheart, that book is for adults.

Dada shouldn't have read it to you.

- I'm sorry. - Please?

All right.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley.

"Chapter one: Nightmare.

When my mother was pregnant with me,

she told me later a party of hooded Ku Klux Klan riders

galloped up to our home in Omaha, Ne"--

Skip to the part about white people in America.

Oh, all right.

"I don't care how nice one is to you."

He's talking about the white man.

"The thing you must always remember

is that almost never does he really see you

as he sees himself,

as he sees his own kind."

Preach, brother Malcolm! Preach!

Are you reading Malcolm X to her again?

No, no, no, no, just the part at the end

where he comes back from Mecca and likes white people.

Mm-hmm.

Don't you have to go to work?

Oh, yeah.

Night, sweetheart.

Bye.

Night, sweetheart.

Have fun.

Brooklyn, I want you to give it up

for W. Kamau Bell!

All right.

What's up?

Ah, yes, thanks.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

You know, when I--they said,

"You want to tape your first comedy special?"

I said, "Yeah." Said, "Where you want to do it?"

I said, "Can we do it at my house?"

They said, "No."

I said, "Then Brooklyn. How 'bout Brooklyn, then?"

And I've never been to this venue before.

- It's nice, right? - Yes!

And when I heard about it in Brooklyn,

I was a little bit worried that we were gonna be

in the part of Brooklyn that was maybe

not feeling like Brooklyn, you know what I mean?

But as I got out of the subway, walked over,

I was like, "Oh, no, this is still Brooklyn right here.

This is--this has not been

touched wholly by the gentrification brush yet.

It's coming. The arena's down the street.

We know it's coming."

But yeah, man, gentrification's sweeping the nation, man.

Happens--affects the Bay Area; and gentrification's gotten

to a new next level of gentrification.

Like, you know gentrification's bad now

'cause white people are mad about it.

There's white people in Williamsburg right now like,

"Hey, I have lived here for two years!

Two years, God damn it.

I remember when that coffee shop was a different coffee shop.

The muffin place sells froyo now.

This is bullshit!

Where am I gonna get my muffins?"

Settle down, sir.

It's weird how fast cities change and how things change.

I find myself getting nostalgic

for shit that doesn't make sense.

Like, I was walking down the street one day,

and I was like, "Oh, man,

I remember when that Chase bank used to be a Washington Mutual."

What kind of nostalgia is that?

Kind of story is that to tell my daughter?

"Hey, honey, Dada remembers

when that multinational corporation

was a different multinational corporation

'cause the--before the banks consolidated--

yeah, our stories suck right now, yeah.

Your generation's gonna have to burn it down and start over

'cause we've ruined everything.

Yeah, they're remaking Memento, honey.

It's over. They're remaking Memento.

It's over." And now I live in Berkeley.

I--you know, I never thought I'd live in Berkeley.

It's good; it's very lefty

and a little progressive, and it's weird,

which I like.

I think we got to keep the big cities weird, all right?

That's our number one job, and weird can be defined

as a lot of things, but I think you should definitely--

every day you leave your house, you should be like,

"Oh, I've never seen that before."

That's what I like; I'm a big fan of,

"Oh, ho-ho, well, look at that."

And when you live in a big urban environment,

you see things you haven't seen before,

you should go, "Huh, that's new.

I'll just have to add that into the mix."

Whereas small towns, "I've never seen that before.

Kill it!"

No, I like that.

It's weird--I like it, and I live in Berkeley,

and Berkeley's still keeping it weird.

Like, I--this is a true story.

I was walking in downtown Berkeley,

and I saw, uh, a woman with a sign

and, like, a collection cup.

She's trying to collect some money,

and the sign-- I looked at the sign

'cause I always read the sign to find out what's going on.

It's like the newspaper now.

And I looked at the sign, and it said,

"Increase black women."

I was like, "I think I'm with that.

I-I think I support that.

I'm not really sure. Do you have a pamphlet?

I need more information."

Increase is a weird verb, right?

Like...

do you mean more black women or bigger?

Which do you mean?

Are you mad that Shonda Rhimes got skinny?

What's going on here? I don't understand.

"Increase black women"? I looked at the sign.

I was like, "What is--what is that?"

And then I got closer,

and it was a white lady with dreadlocks.

Yay!

Good to see Rachel Dolezal's still in the game.

No, I appreciate that.

Glad she bounced back.

It was a rough few months for her of being pretend black.

Yeah, Berkeley's weird. I love it, but it's weird.

I saw the weirdest thing I've ever seen.

I don't even know why I thought it was weird.

Maybe you can help me. I was walking down the street--

Leave my house, walking down the main street,

and I saw this white woman waiting for the bus

eating a raw head of red cabbage.

Isn't that weird?

I don't even know why it's weird.

I was just like, "What is going on?"

I was like, "I don't know what to do.

I think--I don't know why I think it's weird,

but it seems weird.

Why are you eating raw ca"--

Like, and she didn't seem that bothered by it.

Like, that's what she--choice.

Like, "What do I want to take as a snack?

Red cabbage."

Like, that seemed weird. I called Homeland Security.

"I see something.

I just feel like I should say something.

There's a white lady eating a red cabbage waiting for the bus.

Is that a thing? Is that a thing?

I don't know if she's a Muslim. Why do you always ask that?

Why do you always ask that?"

Yeah, but it's fun to be in New York, man.

It's so funny to me to live--I've lived

on the West Coast and the East Coast now.

There's a very-- New York is liberal,

the Bay Area's liberal, but New York's got

a very different type of liberalism

than Bay Area liberalism.

Yeah, you know what I'm talking--it's a very--

it's a way more muscular, aggressive liberalism

than we have in the Bay Area.

Bay Area's like, "We're liberal, yeah, I guess.