Monday night's episode of "The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore" focused on three stories of racism and bigotry that have been trending in the news. Two of those stories involved Georgia educators.
“The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore” has been making waves since its premiere in January. The new show, a spinoff of “The Daily Show,” focuses less on the media’s coverage of political news (that’s Jon Stewart’s job) and more on trending news topics.
The show begins with a monologue by host Larry Wilmore and ends with a roundtable discussion that often features one comedian, one celebrity and experts on the subjects being discussed.
Last night's show began with host Larry Wilmore discussing the remarks made by Principal Nancy Gordeuk at the graduation ceremony of Stone Mountain's TNT Academy. The video — of Gordeuk calling the crowd "goobers," "cowards" and (after accidentally dismissing the crowd before the Valedictorian's speech) yelling,"Look who's leaving? All the black people." — was played.
Wilmore then played the video clip of Gordeuk claiming the devil was responsible for her comments.
The show then switched focus to Nancy Perry, the Dublin, Georgia, teacher that was removed from the classroom after telling students President Barack Obama was not Christian, if their parents voted for Obama they were not Christian, and the President is an "evil Muslim."
Here are the best quotes from Wilmore’s monologue:
“The devil? First of all, everyone knows the devil hasn’t been back in Georgia since he lost that fiddling competition.”
“A Georgia teacher tells her students Obama is an evil Muslim. In a related story, she’s now the front-runner for the Republican primary!”
(After guessing what offensive term Perry called the President) “Evil Muslim, I almost went with that! I had huge fan of late term abortions.”
“Hey Georgia educators, can I talk to you for a sec? If people wanted their kids to learn coded racism, false truths about the president and be talked down to, they would homeschool them. And leave them watching Fox News all day.”
“They (parents) have their kids in a Georgia public school to learn actual facts. You know, like the Civil War should actually be called the ‘War of Northern Aggression.' So teach them what’s right and leave your half-baked, unsubstantiated opinions where they belong: Thanksgiving dinner.”
Wilmore was then joined for a round table discussion with comedian and show contributor Mike Yard, comedian Rachel Feinstein, and film and television producer (and Georgia resident) Will Packard.
The best quotes from the roundtable:
“It’s weird, it’s almost like black people can’t do anything right now. Everything we do is stereotypical. We like chicken, that’s bad. We like watermelon, ‘Ehh, they like that watermelon’. They leave when you dismiss them? ‘Look at these Negros, just doing what we tell them to do.’” – Mike Yard
"If you look, it was the black people leaving … But here's the thing: If you were a student or parent and had to be subjected to this crazy racist principal all year and finally you graduate? You would get the hell out of there too!" – Will Packard
“People always blame the devil too. I thinks it’s okay, like if you murder your kids, blame the devil, but not for casual, everyday racism.” – Rachel Feinstein
“I like how she said the devil just popped out of my mouth, like he just showed up. I’m like, ‘He just got there?’ Because the way you said that, it was smooth as hell like the devil’s been there for a minute.” – Mike Yard
“As a Georgian, I feel the need to defend my white friends in Georgia. There are some great gun-toting, God-loving, Obama-voting white people in Georgia.” – Will Packard
“You have another teacher (in Georgia) saying parents are evil if they voted for Obama. Personally, I don’t think even the devil would stoop this low.” – Larry Wilmore
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