-Last week, during a Coronavirus Task Force
briefing at the White House,
the U.S. surgeon general, Jerome Adams,
revealed that the coronavirus is disproportionately
affecting Black and Hispanic Americans
and, to fix that, Adams said, people of color need
to "Step up and take responsibility
for keeping themselves healthy."
He added...
Here, with more on that, is one of our writers,
Amber Ruffin, with a segment called
"Amber's Minute of Fury."
[ Heavy metal theme plays ]
[ Flames crackling ]
-Fool,
I know you did not just get up in front
of your little white friends and blame the spread
of the coronavirus on minorities.
Damn!
There is nothing this administration won't blame
on people of color.
I'm surprised they didn't give a press conference
on Easter to point out the fact that,
[ changes accent ] the worst jelly beans
are the Black ones.
Now, I can see this type of thing coming
from a member of Trump's staff,
but I did not see it coming from a Jerome.
A Chad; a Tyler, maybe.
But a Jerome?
You friggin' idiot.
You are parroting classic right-wing talking points.
If Billboard had a chart for racist talking points,
"Minorities just don't take care of themselves"
would be number 2, right after "Never talk about the real root
of the problem -- systemic racism."
Tsk. Y'all, this man went on national television,
flanked by the world's most famous racists,
and tried to get minorities to stop the spread by saying...
[ As Adams ] Do it for your abuela.
Do it for Big Mama.
Now, when he was talking to white people about it,
did he say, "Do it for Pee-Paw"?
Did he say, "Do it for Gam-Gams"?
No! Because you can talk to white people regular,
but when you talk to minorities,
you have to do an impersonation, or we can't understand you.
And reporters are like,
"Black people are getting sicker than white people.
Mm, anyway, on to sports."
But you can't do that!
'Cause there are no sports anymore, but also,
if you want to point out a disparity like that,
you have to say what caused it.
It's redlining. It's doctor bias.
It's systemic racism!
And, if you don't know what those things mean,
it's probably also you!
America is set up specifically to do this to Black people.
Bad things always affect Black people worse
and Americans always act like it's Black people's fault.
If Nancy Kerrigan was Black, people would've been like...
[ changes accent ] Well, why were you in that pipe's way?
Also, if you're gonna hang out in this rink,
you need to buy something.
Bad things always affect us disproportionately.
Except sunburns.
Now, if it was only Black people who got sunburns,
sunblock would not exist.
Well, it would, but you wouldn't be able
to get it at like Walgreens.
You'd only be able to get it
at like a Lee's Beauty Supply,
which is fine, 'cause I was going there, anyway.
Now, the coronavirus is
affecting Black people disproportionately.
That is a fact, but here's the thing, Jerome!
You can't run around saying that fact out loud
because we want the government to fix it!
And, if you tell Americans it mostly affects Black people,
folks will be outside in a big pile,
French kissing strangers [ Striking palm ] tomorrow.
No one would care! You need to tell people
this coronavirus only affects old white men
and white children.
That's how you get people to care.
We should be calling this the J. Crew virus.
[ changes accent ] "The J. Crew virus -- Is it serious?"
Well, you can only get it if you've been
in a J. Crew the past year.
"[ Gasp ] The past year?!
I go every day!
They're my emergency contact!"
Now, here's the deal.
When you have a job that allows you to work from home,
you can stay home.
It just so happens that the jobs
that have been deemed essential --
healthcare providers, bus drivers, subway operators,
food delivery people --
a lot of these jobs are done by Black people,
and that's messed up, in several ways,
but I'll just say this.
Minorities are dying so people can eat Domino's Pizza
in their pajamas. That's effed up!
In part, because Pizza Hut
is infinitely better.
I'm right, and I don't have time to argue with you about it.
People are dying.
Now, I'm working from home,
but almost every Black person I know is at work right now,
talking about how spoiled I am.
And they're right!
Mmm.
But, really, there's a lot
of Black and Brown people I love
who have been at work every day since this thing started
and, real talk,
I am losing sleep, terrified for them.
I wanna come on the show, doing a silly sketch
where I'm dressed as a doughnut,
talking about "Amber ate my family,"
but, instead, I gotta be doing this
because I'm a human being and I live in this world
and I wanna, in some tiny way,
try and undo the danger you put us all in
when you talk like a friggin' idiot on national television!
This has been "Amber's Minute of Fury"!
♪♪