I moved to the UK just as Larry Wilmore took over Stephen Colbert’s 11:30 slot on Comedy Central. The Nightly Show could not have come at a more appropriate time: with Colbert confirmed as the replacement for David Letterman, late night tv continues its tradition of white male hosts. Wilmore’s show positions itself as offering something different. His show is not always about race issues, but given the prominence of recent developments in America’s long struggle with racial inequality it is helpful to have a mainstream talk show platform that tackles America’s race problems head-on.
When I heard that Wilmore tackled the issue of black fatherhood, I was floored. When I watched the clips, I was stunned. Nothing earth-shattering happens in the three segments on the subject of Black dads, featuring panelists like Charles Blow and Common. The five men have a frank if pithy discussion of their relationship with their fathers and with societal stereotypes of Black dads more generally. At the end of the panel, however, Wilmore derails the whole endeavor by asking each man to say on the record if Black women’s bossiness is the reason for male absenteeism.
I don’t always facepalm, but when I do it’s when reactionary patriarchy intervenes in critical spaces.
Watch here.
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