W. Kamau Bell, Stand-up Comedian and television host of CNN’s United Shades of America, joined Baby Huey and Chasta on the couch.
Bell’s comedy and his television show both deal with race in America and what it’s like for him as a black man to go through everyday life. He shared a story about the pilot episode of his show United Shades of America where he went to the south to spend time with active Klu Klux Klan members. After an arduous search for chapters that would talk to him he said that they opened up easily once he showed interest in their everyday struggles.
“I was using humor as a way to sort of calm myself down and also to keep them back on their toes,” Bell Said. “The ones who would talk to me I got them laughing. They were having problems getting Klansmen to help put the cross together. I was like, ‘What do I have to do to get a Klansmen!’”
Bell also felt this was a challenge to himself to see if he could sit across the table from a Klan member and have a conversation and feel comfortable just being himself. He also covers this material in his standup where he recounts life in a interracial marriage. After hearing some of the hateful experiences he’s had Chasta asked: “For white folks what can we do to help this horrible horrible issue?”
“White people, you have to get better at calling out your white people and feeling that your whiteness is connected to their whiteness,” Bell said.
While Bell talked a lot about race relations in America he also wasn’t shy about some name dropping a little. Kamau had an opportunity to work with the late-great Anthony Bourdain and also had a chance encounter with Dave Ghrol. Bell couldn’t believe he was able to work with Bourdain in Kenya before his passing.
“I got to tell him how surreal it was we were out on safari drinking gin and tonics,” Bell said. “I used to sit on my girlfriend’s couch in Oakland when it was on the Travel Channel going like, ‘How do you get a show like that?’ I would like a show like that but I would take out the food and put in racism.”
Bell currently has a new comedy special on Netflix, Private School Negro, and is also working on a new season of United Shades of America.
Listen to the full interview here:
And check out the trailer for W. Kamau Bell’s Netflix special “Private School Negro” below.
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