kenya barris welcome to the daily social
distancing show
thank you so much what up trev thanks
for having me doc how you doing sir this
is this is dope i love your zoom
background it looks so real it looks
like you've got a like a really
beautiful yard and everything that's
amazing man
i'm actually in a federal penitentiary
this is the station
[Laughter]
i want to talk a little bit about the
little empire that you've created i mean
those are those
that's paradox little empire the empire
that you've created
um really spinning off from you know
from blackish you've got
blackish you've got grown-ish you've got
mixed-ish
and then on netflix you've got black af
how how much i i didn't know that there
was this much in blackness that that
could be
that could be extracted from black like
what where do we go from this because i
want to join in i want i want a piece of
action
and we and and and you know we we can do
south african-ish
too but we do have one more coming
you've really done a great job
of i think creating experiences
and creating shows that speak to the
black experience in
in i think in a way that not not
everybody's familiar with you know like
like a lot of shows try and put black in
one category you know it's either going
to be a sad story it's either going to
be a slave story it's only going to be
racism or it's only going to be hip-hop
but you in all of your shows try and
tell it in all of its complexity like
you go like no
being black is all of these things with
black af you've been picked up for a
second season congratulations what are
you trying to do with the show
moving forward um i want to
i want to be relevant i want to be
culturally
progressive i want to say things that
haven't been you know like it was people
people liked it people hated it you know
i'm saying i think but it was the most
polarizing thing i've ever done
and i have to be honest with you because
of that it was
probably one of my favorite things wow
because i didn't
in a way that i didn't realize before
the best way to really start a
conversation is to have people disagree
you know and i think that so often as as
black
artists we are not able to
have conversations that are not just
sort of down the middle
i love that because those kind of
conversations were getting created and
that's how we move forward so whatever
you know we do next season
we want to move the conversation forward
we want to sort of you know i remember
when you
started doing you know the daily show it
was a big change
and it was like you did not try to do an
impersonation
you came and did yourself and you
murdered it but it was like that was a
progressive
move for the culture and i feel like
that the way we have to move
forward is to do bold seismic
changes to what people have seen us as
so that's what i'm trying to do
let's talk about the episode of blackish
that everybody is talking about right
now
and that's the episode that was
previously shelved under mysterious
circumstances
and then now has been released on hulu
and i think it's entitled please baby
please
and there was this episode that we heard
about
and it was supposed to come out i think
it was a year after the election had
taken place and
and then all of a sudden this episode
disappeared and people were like what
happened where did the episode go
and then kenya barris left and uh abc
and started working with netflix and
people were like today did they censor
him did they stop him
but now this episode is out and i mean
it's it's a really poignant episode you
know
covering everything that happened in
that first year talking about donald
trump you know talking about xenophobia
in the country the rise of
right-wing nationalism the rise of
homophobia just like everything that we
were seeing
explode in america during that first
year of trump's presidency
years ago right but it seems
as relevant today so two things
two things one can you tell us why that
episode was shelved and two
why did you fight so hard why did you go
to disney and say hey i really think we
need to release that episode
um i can said that there were creative
differences
in why we showed i'm saying i think that
it was
a really interesting time in disney sort
of you know growth
and at the same time was an interesting
time in our country's growth
and it was the most
blatantly partisan episode of of
blackish we've ever done yeah i'm saying
it was like you know and it was
that's that's a hard place to be you
know i'm saying um
for america's broadcasting corporation
i'm saying to they already led us to a
lot of things and i felt like
some of the things that we could not
agree upon in terms of what what should
be there we shouldn't be there it was
not something that i felt like at that
time i wanted to compromise on
and um from the highest levels you know
you know bob iger i'm saying understood
and like really supported where i was
coming from but
at the same time was running a publicly
traded company during a
you know a merger and things like that
and it was you know we came to a
a really unf you know at the time
unfortunate but really respectful
you know understanding that i did not
want to put it out as in without
with changing it right and they didn't
want to put it out without changing it
and we
decided and i think you know i actually
spoke to iger who
re-aired hope in juneteenth you know
during the time and we were having a
conversation
and you know bob who's i i my joke is
that he's made in the ceo factory
you know i'm saying like it's bob iger
i'm reading for the world of ceo like
he's the best ceo i've ever
talked to but like we had a real honest
conversation about this episode he was
like
i love the episode he was like i think
the time
is there and he's like i think that
there's a lot of curiosity as to
actually why it was shown
right right of like us trying to answer
it
or us trying to talk about he was like i
think the time is like like
now to say like let people put us put it
out and let people sort of
on their own find their answer of what
they can find for us so i feel like that
has been you know what i i've been
really
you know happy with what people have
been saying and what people have been
seeing and i feel like it is
um one of the highlights of like
my writing career is to be able to like
to have
something that you felt like was gone
that you're really proud of
to be able to come back and actually
during a time when we're actually in all
this stuff
speak to people and start a conversation
well kenya barris thank you again for
joining
me on the show uh hopefully next time
i'll see you in person my friend
enjoy your your zoom background and uh
good luck good luck with season two of
the show thanks sagar appreciate you
thank you for that
dude i appreciate man
[Music]