Hasan Minhaj On Trump’s Bigotry, Blockbuster Video, And 9/11 To 11/9

Actor and comedian Hasan Minhaj speaks truth to power, time after time. And The Daily Show’s senior political analyst didn’t hold back on the day after the election, 11/9.

President-elect Donald Trump is notorious for his racist, sexist, and in other ways bigoted comments and actions, many of which have been tracked at length and in detail by others. In a segment with host Trevor Noah, a passionate Minhaj got right to the point and asked why Trump’s bigotry wasn’t a deal-breaker for those who voted for him.

He also spoke about dealing with Islamophobia as a South Asian American then (post-9/11) and now (post-11/9). He shared his personal experiences in terms both comic (“Have I pretended to be Puerto Rican a few times since 9/11? ¡Claro que sí!”) and deeply heartfelt (uncertainty over whether his mother, currently in India, will be able to return to the U.S.). Watch the clip here:

In another public appearance, at the Natural Resource Defense Council’s Night of Comedy event, Minhaj also spoke about the election’s aftermath and how a certain burden unfairly placed on him as a Muslim South Asian American after 9/11 might now be shifted to white Americans:

For the past 15 years of my life I’ve been blamed for 9/11…People have always said, ‘Are you going to say something? Say something to condemn terrorism.’ And now white America is responsible for 11/9. Congratulations, you voted for domestic terrorism.

For more from his NRDC event appearance, including his intriguing Blockbuster Video-Hulu Plus-Netflix analogy, check out Vulture’s video clip and post.

America is Blockbuster Video. We just voted for Blockbuster Video. You know what’s even worse? Hillary Clinton was Hulu Plus, marginally better, but we could have lived without her, and that’s the problem, Hil! We needed a full Netflix performance.

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Pavani Yalamanchili is an editor at The Aerogram. Find her on Twitter at @_pavani, and follow The Aerogram at @theaerogram or on Facebook.

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