[upbeat music]
Amazon is suspending reviews
of its new "Lord of the Rings" series on Rotten Tomatoes.
It says the 72 hour hold is to make sure the reviews
for "Rings of Power" are legit and prevent internet trolls
from bringing down their score.
[Reporter] Amazon says Reviews are being dragged down
by fans who are upset about the show's diverse cast,
which includes black actors playing elves and dwarves.
These viewers say it's unrealistic
for Tolkien's creatures to be non-white.
Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, this is a tough one.
This is a tough one.
I mean, on the one hand everyone wants diversity
in the shows that we create,
but on the other hand,
you gotta admit it's a bit unrealistic
to say that there were Black people
in this white guy's imagination.
You know, I mean, I can get on board with a show
or a world where magical creatures cast spells
and fight undead armies for control of a piece of jewelry
that can turn them into gods.
But if those creatures have a tan
it's just not believable anymore!
-It really isn't! -[audience applauding]
-No, for real. -[audience applauding]
This is so hypocritical.
You're gonna get mad about seeing a Black dwarf
in "Lord of the Rings," but you're fine
with seeing a Kevin Hart movie be consistent.
[audience laughing]
-He's so tiny. -[audience laughing]
Also, by the way,
I don't understand why people are this angry.
It's not like all the characters turned Black, right?
There's one Black dwarf, a couple of Black elves.
It's not like the NBA!
-Calm down. -[audience laughing]
People be like, oh, he's Black!
What is this?
You know, it's the same way people were losing their shit
because of the one black guy in "House of Dragons",
you know, people losing them.
"Oh, well, it only takes one to lower the property values.
You know, the House of Dragon used to be worth 400,000.
Now, I don't know anymore!"
And I know what people are saying.
People are saying that the books are supposed
to be based on medieval Europe.
So having Black characters isn't realistic.
But guys, nobody's watching "Lord of the Rings" for realism.
Okay, they're watching it
because they didn't have sex in high school.
-That's the only reason. -[audience laughing]
-It's not realistic. -[audience applauding]
I will say this though.
I will say this, apart from the racism thing.
I kind of agree.
I don't think it makes sense to have Black characters
in "Lord of the Rings."
Yeah, I said it.
The whole series is about seeing danger
-and then running towards it. -[audience laughing]
That's some white people shit.
[audience laughing]
[audience applauding]
Like the reason, the reason there were no Black people
in Middle Earth is because they saw the giant eye talking
out of a volcano, and they were like,
"Oh, hell no, we're moving to Africa
because this shit here, nuh-uh, no, nope!
We do not need to be here.
We're gonna Africa.
We're totally safe."
[upbeat music]
I wanted to share this little story with you.
I got into a little bit of trouble
-with the French government. -[audience laughing]
I know, the French government.
So what, what happened was, let's start at the beginning.
-France won the World Cup. -[audience cheering]
And so on the show, we celebrated that.
And I had this joke where I said,
-"Africa won the World Cup." -[audience cheering]
And I was shocked at how angry a lot of French people got.
[audience laughing]
Like, genuinely, a lot of French people were angry
and they were like, "oh, Trevor, how can you say this?
Why we say these things?"
And you know, "this is horrible."
And I was like, okay, I get it.
Like, not everyone likes every joke that you tell,
and I get that.
But this was interesting.
I got a letter from the ambassador,
the Ambassador of France, and I'll read it to you.
It was about that joke.
And he says, I'll try to read it how I hope he wrote it
which was he says, "Sir, I watched
with great attention your July 17th show when you spoke
of the victory of the French team
at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia final
which took place last Sunday.
I heard your words about an African victory.
Nothing could be less true."
Now, first of all, I think it could have been less.
I could have said there was Scandinavian
that that would've been less true.
That would've been less true.
He says, "As many of the players
have already stated themselves their parents may have come
from another country, but the great majority of them,
all but two out of 23, were born in France.
They were educated in France
they learned to play soccer in France.
They're French citizens.
They're proud of their country, France.
The rich and various backgrounds of these players
is a reflection of France's diversity.
France is indeed..."
Now that line there was interesting.
"The rich and various backgrounds of these players
is a reflection of France's diversity."
Now, I'm not trying to be an asshole,
but I think it's more reflection of France's colonialism.
[audience cheering]
Because it's not like, it's just like random play.
Like they all have something in common.
Like all of those players, if you trace their lineage,
you're like, how did you guys become French?
Like how did your how did your family start speaking French?
-Oh, okay, all right. -[audience laughing]
Let me see here.
He says, "France is indeed a cosmopolitan country,
but every citizen is part of the French identity.
And together they belong to the nation of France.
Unlike in the United States of America,
France does not refer to its citizens based on their race,
religion, or origin.
To us, there is no hyphenated identity.
Roots are an identity.
Roots are an individual reality.
By calling them an African team,
it seems you are denying their Frenchness.
This even in jest legitimizes the ideology
which claims whiteness
as the only definition of being French."
So now here's the thing.
Alright, first things first.
I understand what he's saying,
'cause I read up on this afterwards, right?
I take criticism.
I'll listen to what somebody says to me.
You know, I genuinely believe you should.
And what it turns out is in France a lot of like Nazis
in that country use the fact that these players
of African descent to shit on their Frenchness, you know.
So they go, "you're not French, you're from Africa.
Go back to where you came from.
You're not French."
They use that as you know, as a line of attack.
Now, my thing is, my opinion is coming from South Africa,
coming from Africa, and even watching the World Cup
in the United States of America,
Black people all over the world were celebrating
the Africanness of the French players, right?
Not in a negative way, but rather in a positive way,
going, "look at these Africans who can become French."
You know what I mean?
It's a celebration of that achievement.
And so this is what I find weird in in these arguments,
is that people go "they're not African, they're French."
Then I'm like, why can't they be both?
[audience applauding]
-Right? -[audience applauding]
Why is that duality only afforded
to a select group of people?
Why can they not be African?
So what they're arguing here is in order to be French
you have to erase everything that is African.
'Cause what do they mean when they say that?
"Our culture, our this, our this?"
Like, so you cannot be French and African at the same time.
Which, which I've vehemently disagree with.
I go, you've seen those players, I love them.
Paul Pogba, Ngolo Kante, I've watched all of them.
Like I love those players and I love how African they are
and how French they are.
I don't take their Frenchness away,
but I also don't think you need
to take their Africanness away, you know?
And that's is what I love about America.
America's not a perfect country,
but what I love about this place is that people
can still celebrate their identity in their Americanness.
You can go to a St. Patrick's Day parade
in America celebrating that you are Irish.
You can go to a Puerto Rican day parade in America,
still celebrating the fact that you're Puerto Rican
and American at the same time.
You can celebrate Juneteenth as a black person
and be like, "Yo, I'm African-American,"
which is the duality of the two worlds.
But here they're going, no, you are only French.
And here's why it vexes me, to be honest.
This is what I find interesting
is like when I read stories from Africa,
and when I watch what politicians say,
especially in France about African migrants.
When they are unemployed, when they may commit a crime,
or when they're considered unsavory
it's the African immigrants.
When their children go on to provide a World Cup victory
for France, we should only refer to them as France.
And we even saw it with that African man who climbed
the building to rescue the baby.
-Do you remember that? -[Audience] Yeah.
We watched him climb that building.
He rescued the child
and then they gave him French citizenship.
They said, "You are now French."
So now I'm going, so is he now no longer African?
Is that what you're saying?
So when he was on the ground, he was African.
-[audience laughing] -And then he climbed up.
And as soon as he rescued the baby, now he's French.
So if he dropped the baby, the African dropped the baby.
-[audience laughing] -[audience applauding]
I don't believe that you need, and here's like I say again,
with respect, I understand what the ambassador's saying,
I'm not joining the attack.
And I know, don't get me wrong, I know there's like,
you know, we live in a world where like nuance is something
that is in short supply.
And so you will find, you know, in America, for instance,
the alt-right saying, "That's what we've been saying,
they're not French.
And we are saying it's like,
but if Trevor says it, it's not racist.
But if we say it, it's racist."
Like yeah, yeah.
I'll say, yeah, you know why?
Because I believe context is everything.
There are certain things you can say to somebody that,
like when I say to my friends, "What's going on, my nigga?"
And if a white person came and said the same thing,
yeah, there's a big difference.
When I'm saying their African,
I'm not saying it as a way to exclude them
from their Frenchness,
but I'm rather using it to include them in my Africanness.
I'm saying, "I see you, my French brother
of African descent."
Do you know what I'm saying?
That's what I'm trying to say.
When somebody else says it the other way,
you can use the same line in different ways.
People are like, "So it's different?"
Yeah, yeah, it's different.
It can be different.
It's like somebody saying, "Oh, so if you play
with your naked child, that's not a problem.
But if what I do it, I'm a pedophile?"
-Yeah, yeah. -[audience laughing]
-There's a big difference! -[audience applauding]
-There's a huge difference. -[audience applauding]
So I will continue to praise them for being African
because I believe that they are of Africa,
their parents are from Africa,
and they can be French at the same time.
And if French people are saying they cannot be both
then I think they have a problem and not me.
[upbeat music]
That's right, the UK's new prime minister
is former finance minister Rishi Sunna, and he's Indian.
He's Hindu and he's only 42 years old,
which means he will probably serve well
into his 42 and a halves easily.
[audience laughing]
And let's not forget let's not forget...
[audience applauding]
Let's not forget another important first.
He's also the first prime minister who's an absolute snack!
-Yeah! -[audience laughing]
Oh, look at you, Rishi!
And before you thinking, "Oh, is he?"
Don't forget who came before, don't forget!
We're moving on up!
-[audience laughing] -[audience applauding]
Now, of course, of course not everyone in the UK is happy
about Rishi Sunak taking the top spot and making history.
And it's not because of his policies
or because of his personality.
No, there are some people who have a problem
with something else as this caller to a British radio show
so eloquently explained.
Is the real problem here, Jerry,
that Rishi Sunak is a brown man
and you don't trust him at the top of this country?
[Jerry] Well, could you imagine him going
to the Scottish Nationalist
and being the Prime Minister of the Scottish Nationalists?
Could you imagine me becoming the Prime Minister
of Pakistan or Saudi Arabia?
No, these things matter!
I'm sorry you don't like it, but this is predominantly,
we're talking about England, right?
85% of the English people, yes, are white English people
and they wanna see a Prime Minister that reflects them.
Yeah, yeah, this guy has a good point.
Can you imagine if white English people wanted
to rule countries where no one looked like them?
-That would never happen! -[audience applauding]
-Can you imagine that world? -[audience cheering]
-What would world be like? -[audience cheering]
You know what's so funny to me?
It's funny how racists always say,
"Oh, colonization was fine.
It was business!"
Until they feel like they're being colonized.
Then all of a sudden it's like, "Something needs to be done!
Something needs to be done!"
You're not even being colonized.
The guy is British, what's wrong with you?
You know, and if you ask me, British racist are looking
at this whole thing all wrong, this could be a good thing
for you people.
After 400 years, you'll finally get to legitimately blame
a brown person for your country's problems.
You're living your dreams!
-Wake up! -[audience laughing]
I mean there is a part of me...
There's a part of me that feels
a little bad for England's racists.
No, because remember, remember they voted
for Brexit specifically to keep Britain white.
[audience laughing]
And that vote started a seven year chain of dominoes
that has now led directly to an Indian Prime Minister.
-[audience applauding] -[audience cheering]
-Oh, man! -[audience applauding]
Yeah, they're probably like,
"Oh, this is certainly a rich irony at my expense,
-isn't it, yeah?" -[audience laughing]
And here's the thing,
keep in mind this caller even says that he is Tory.
So this is the same party as Rishi Sunak, right?
Which means they probably agree on all the same policies.
He just doesn't like that he's not white,
which I don't understand.
I truly don't understand.
What are you scared of?
Oh, what is this caller scared of?
Does he think Sunna is gonna walk up
to the podium on his first day in office and be like,
"It is the greatest privilege
of my life to be able to give back
to the country I owe so much to, and to show my gratitude,
I just want to say I'm selling the entire country to India!
That's like revenge time, you bastards!
This was the plan the whole time.
Happy Diwali mother bitches!"
It's not gonna happen, you racists!
[upbeat music]
You know, every time one of these like internet outrage,
things happens about
which character is being played by whom?
And people get angry.
I would get it if people had good faith arguments,
but you can tell that people are just using these moments
to disguise a discriminatory ideal
and like a, you know,
a racism that they hold or some, you know?
It's like it's your thing.
You know, people are gonna act like,
"Oh no, 'The Little Mermaid,'
I'm here because I'm a Little Mermaid Purist".
Come up with all these bullshit answers.
They'd be like, "You know, you look at the history
of 'The Little Mermaid.'"
I'm sorry, "The history of 'The Little Mermaid'?"
You mean the imagination of "The Little Mermaid"?
"Yeah, I mean if you look at it, it's like..."
Yeah, if you were a fan, you would've known
that Disney had long created Black mermaids.
Like they did this, they spin off all their movies.
They've had tons of them.
They had like a Black mermaid, she did sign language.
Used to be a cartoon when we were kids.
People don't care about it.
They're like, "It's never, it's never happened.
It's just, look, here's the thing.
It's not about race, it's just about realism."
I'm sorry, what?
And then it's ironic that they try and use representation
as the argument the other way around.
You know, so they will say, "It's not about representation.
You shouldn't, who cares who plays the role?
All that matters is the best person gets the job."
And it's like, "Have you heard Halle Bailey sing?"
Have you heard her sing?
[Audience] Yeah.
You wanna tell me "the best person"?
Like, who do you think they got for?
You think Disney is just out there in the street like,
-"You, come, let's go." -[audience laughing]
You think they play games like that?
It is the best person for the job.
You angry about who the best person was.
That's what you're angry about.
And it's like, "No, but 'The Little Mermaid',
she means so much.
And I don't deny that.
I don't deny that it must have been amazing
for any redhead little girl to see "The Little Mermaid."
It must have been amazing.
It's a beautiful experience, but the movie's still there.
You get what I'm saying?
It's not gone.
You can't not watch it.
It hasn't been burned.
It is still there.
You can still watch it and you can enjoy it.
I do all the time.
-It's not going anywhere. -[audience laughing]
It's like you get so angry.
"But what about the little girls with red hair who want..."
Who want what?
To see themselves in, what, a Disney cartoon?
Like, like are you being serious right now?
You have the princess in "Brave".
She was red haired, remember her, right?
You have, you have Anna from "Frozen", right?
You have little kid from "Up",
remember like pulls off the helmet
and like the hair does a thing.
It's the cutest thing.
It was like, "ah!"
Remember that red hair?
There's tons, tons of other characters.
There are more red haired Disney stars,
like women who are star in the
in the franchise than Black women.
But now you're gonna make it seem like it's,
and it's not like one should be against the other.
There's no need.
You have "The Little Mermaid", it's fun.
Now you've got Halle Bailey playing the real version of it.
That's fun, don't make it about realism.
Don't, it's guys, it's under the sea.
-There's a crab. -[audience laughing]
There's a crab that is gonna talk,
and you're worried about this element?
[audience laughing]
People are like, "Well, I just think it should be..."
It's all a thing.
And then I love when people go,
"Oh yeah, so if you don't care, then how would you feel
if the Black Panther was played by a white guy?"
I'm like, well, the difference here
is the Black Panther,
blackness is central to the character's identity.
Like literally, literally.
Do you know what I mean?
It's like literally that is the whole point of the thing.
And by the way, if you're gonna bring a white guy
who's gonna be like, vibranium, bring him.
I wanna see that guy.
-Bring him just for fun. -[audience laughing]
Just bring that guy just for the fun of it.
Let's see what happens.
There are many people who haven't seen themselves on screen.
You're gonna get angry.
You're gonna get angry because now somebody who's
in a wheelchair is playing this role.
You're gonna get angry because somebody who's Black
is now playing that role.
You're gonna be, it's, the original is still there.
There are many parts that are still out there.
It's not like there is nothing left.
It's not like there's one movie in the world
and there's one story
and this is the only way you can tell it.
There are many, calm down.
Or at the very least the very least,
should get them to meet with Ursula.
And then she'd take their voices away.
[audience laughing]
[audience applauding]
Just be like, until somebody kisses you.
Yeah, don't, don't come back.
-Are you ready? -[audience applauding]
People are so angry, they need to go touch grass, man.
[upbeat music]