-Welcome to "The Tonight Show."
Seeing what is going on in our country,
I'm not going to have a normal show tonight.
I'm going to have a different kind of show.
I'm going to start this personally and then expand out
because that's where we all need to start --
with ourselves and looking at ourselves in the mirror.
And I had to really examine myself --
really examine myself in the mirror this week
because a story came out about me on "SNL"
doing an impression of Chris Rock in blackface.
And I was horrified.
Not of the fact that people
were trying to cancel me or cancel the show,
which is scary enough.
But the thing that haunts me the most was,
How do I say, "I love this person?
I respect this guy more than I respect most humans.
I'm not a racist. I don't feel this way."
And instead, what I kept getting advised was
to just stay quiet and to not say anything,
and that's the advice, because we're all afraid.
And I took it for a minute.
I took the advice, and thought,
"God, I'm going to do this wrong. You're right.
I'm going to say something
and get myself into even more trouble.
I'm going to make this worse. I don't know what to do."
So I thought about it,
and I realized that I can't not say I'm horrified
and I'm sorry and I'm embarrassed.
And what that small gesture did for me was break my own silence.
And what then I started to do was talk to some experts,
some of which are here tonight and this week,
and I realized that the silence is the biggest crime
that white guys like me and the rest of us are doing.
Staying silent.
We need to say something.
We need to keep saying something.
And we need to stop saying, "That's not okay,"
more than just one day on Twitter.
I realize I needed to get educated
about how to stop the silence
and the fear of saying the wrong thing
by not being silent and stepping out and stepping up.
But I need to be -- We all need to be talking about this.
And I spoke to someone incredible and brilliant
who I think can help us all out a little bit here
in this incredibly sensitive
and in-our-face subject that we need to deal with.
We cannot try to bury this again.
It's not going to get buried. It's not going away.
We can't just hope that everyone loves each other.
We can't say, "Be the change," and just sit around tweeting,
"Be the change, be the change."
What is the change? How do I change?
How do I do it? What do I do? Can I wear a T-shirt?
Is there a color? Is there a sign?
Is there a way to do this? I don't know.
So let's start talking with some people about this
and try to get proactive and activated
in this love, in this change cycle.
So let's figure out
how we're going to get along with each other.
Let's figure out how we're going to stop this senseless violence
that erupts and disrupts
the entire country and now the world.
The world is screaming, and it is angry,
and we all need to figure out a way to take the anger,
which, of course, is just sadness and fear,
and do something with it and try to actually dig this up.
This is such a long root in the ground.
It is so long and deep,
but we got to get in there, and we have to dig it up.
I don't know how else to do it. I'm clearly not an expert.
I'm clearly a late-night talk show host,
and I screwed it up already.
So let's go. Let's reform. Let's talk. Let's do it.
My first guest tonight is Derrick Johnson,
the president and CEO of the NAACP.
We're going to open the show with him tonight and just talk.
Here we go.
Derrick, thank you so much
for being a guest on our show tonight.
I know you must be very, very busy, so I appreciate this.
-Well, it's a pleasure to be here,
and I do want to respond to your opening monologue.
That was powerful,
but most importantly that's about courage.
In this time of many people searching for answers
and just the display of anger and hopelessness and wandering,
more people need to speak about
where they are with a really authentic voice.
And I think you did that with the opening monologue,
so thank you for those words.
-With all the things that are happening right now,
I mean, there's so much to talk about.
But I personally want to know how I can do better
and take responsibility for how I act
both consciously and unconsciously.
And so we talked about this -- I talked to you --
thank you very much --
about my mistakes I made in the past,
and I want to move forward, going forward.
I want to work on being a better ally.
-You know, we are all born flawed,
but flawed is part of the journey that we are on
so we can try to get to perfection.
And if anyone can stand up and say, "I haven't made a mistake,"
run, because that person is clearly a liar.
We have an opportunity to move forward.
We have an opportunity to open up dialogue.
We have an opportunity to learn to understand one another.
-How do we keep the momentum going?
-You know, one of the worst things
about these moments of realization
is people want to have
a quick-fix outpour and then go back to their corners.
The way we keep the momentum going
is keeping the dialogue open,
appreciating the uniqueness we all bring to the table,
and celebrating that uniqueness
and not allowing demagogues to create otherness
from people who may be different.
-I know that I'm getting a lot of advice from you,
but, also, I think it's important to know
that white people should be talking to white people
about racism, as well. -Yeah.
-Can you talk about that a little?
-So, racism is a learned behavior.
And for us to unlearn behavior, we have to be honest about it
and create spaces where we can talk about it.
And I appreciate you.
But most importantly be the example we want to see.
And so peer-to-peer conversations,
using one's platform to promote a more positive outlook at life
as it relates to other people's uniqueness and difference
becomes important.
You know, you and I, we've talked about
building out a campaign looking forward.
And once we launch it, I hope others will join in.
The beautiful thing about where we are today --
media is so democratized that anyone of us can be
our own news channel, our own information source.
And for celebrity types with huge following
on their social-media platforms,
it's really important that we start amplifying
lines of communication
that opens up the issue of being anti-racist,
to talk about the uniqueness of who we are as Americans,
and to really promote a more positive dialogue
with one another to do better
and then not allow demagogues sitting in particular seats
to drive a wedge between communities.
-I've heard that term "anti-racist" now.
It's, like, kind of a buzzword now on Twitter.
What does it actually --
What does it mean? Anti-racist?
-It means that you're actually fighting against racism,
that you are consciously doing things
to stop the spread of racism.
We also understand that racism is structural,
it's institutionalized,
and that as much as you benefit
from that structure and that institution,
you fight to remove that structure
and those institutions
so others can have a level playing field.
We have not had a level playing field in this country
since its inception, and we need to create a way
that we can all be celebrated
and all the excellence that we bring to the table
can be appreciated by the communities across the country.
Think about where we would have been without a Motown,
with all that creativity.
Can you imagine what it would feel like
if you never heard the voice of Aretha Franklin?
Think about that fact that you have the comedic genius
of Eddie Murphy or Chris Rock, one of your friends.
That's what this is about.
How do you remove those barriers
so we can have more Aretha Franklins,
we can have more Eddie Murphys,
we can all get down with Beyoncé and Jay-Z?
That's what we're talking about,
because there's so much we are losing
as a result of the structural barriers
and institutional racism that currently exists.
-This moment happening now,
would you compare it to any other moment in our history?
-You know, it's fascinating.
I just spoke earlier about the last 70 days
is perhaps the worst in our history in my opinion
since the Civil War.
We opened up the last 70 days with a global pandemic
and an anemic response from the federal government
causing mass spread of a virus gone unaddressed too long.
Then we realize, for the African-Americans,
that we were being disproportionately impacted,
we didn't have enough tests,
only to fall into our normal state of aggressive policing
in our communities, first in Georgia.
Then to learn that someone was killed in her bed
in Louisville, Kentucky,
followed by the incident in Minneapolis,
followed by the woman in Central Park.
Only for people to stand up to have peaceful protests
because the district attorney
refused to bring those officers to justice,
moving that along to violence in the street
all under the backdrop of economic collapse.
We have had a rough 70 days,
and we must stand up against what's taking place.
-And we can take this, hopefully, this moment
and turn it into something positive.
-We can. I mean, it starts today.
It starts with us having this dialogue.
It starts with us understanding
that we need to drive people to do something.
For us, you know, you go on our website, NAACP.org,
and join us as volunteers, join the organization
because we have to address the structural racism,
the systemic issues that's plagued this country
for far too long, and we must do it together.
It's not just the burden of African-Americans.
It's the burden of all Americans and whites to join in.
This is an opportunity for us to do better so we can be better.
-We should have everyone watching --
I'd love them to go to NAACP.org and do what you can,
register in there and donate and help.
-Navigate the website. We're going to talk about --
If you want to just donate and stuff, great.
If you want to join, we want you to join.
NAACP, we are all races.
Our founding was both black, white, male, female.
We don't discriminate. We have LGBT.
We don't discriminate because we believe everyone
should be afforded equal protection
under the law, so therefore we operate that way.
If you want to get engaged and be a volunteer,
it's all there -- NAACP.org.
We need your support
so we can make democracy work for everyone.
-I want to work with you, Derrick, and the NAACP,
so if you don't mind, I'd like to check in with you
every couple of months just to see how I'm doing
and what else I could be doing to help.
Is that okay? -I'm looking forward to it.
And, Jimmy, historical note.
The Civil Rights Movement was anchored by some entertainers.
And it was Harry Belafonte. It was Sidney Poitier.
And it was Dick Gregory.
And they reached across the aisle,
and they went and got Bob Dylan,
and they went and got Marlon Brando
and many others to make sure that it was the type
of support necessary to move an agenda
that everyone could benefit from.
To be anti-racist, it means joining in on this army
to fight against racism.
So join the NAACP so we can fight against racism together.
-Derrick, thank you so much again.
I appreciate this. -Thank you for the opportunity.