The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell: Tales of a 6' 4", African American, Heterosexual, Cisgender, Left-Leaning, Asthmatic, Black and Proud Blerd, Mama's Boy, Dad, and Stand-Up Comedian

by W. Kamau Bell

Me and Hari had scheduled a recording of our podcast Politically Re-Active that evening of 11/9, and we opened like it was the day after 9/11, with quiet reflection instead of the normal jokey-bombastic opening that we usually did. It just felt more appropriate. Not because we are snowflakes who couldn’t handle it. But because we are humans who experience a wide range of emotions. And we both knew that Trump’s election made a lot of people feel like they needed to be prepared for an attack. Many Arabs and Muslims were right to be worried, as the postelection hate-crime stats prove. People knew their lives were (and are) at stake. That they could be killed or kicked out of the country and not allowed back in. Or just thrown in prison and not even be allowed to leave the country. That quiet was people realizing that it was all on us now. We have to put the pieces back together ourselves. We have to come together. Like we never have before. Whatever this thing is that is called “the left,” it has to start putting its money where its tweets are. And those of us who are used to watching other people put their bodies on the line—see the 1960s Civil Rights movement and