WATCH: Trevor Noah challenges artists to write consent songs

Less than three years after he first appeared on the show, comedian and host of The Daily Show Trevor Noah visited The Breakfast Club once again and discussed everything from politics to pop culture.

Speaking to Charlamagne the God and Angela Yee, Noah touched on everything from using Donald Trump for comedic content, Gina Rodriguez’ use of the n-word and the general population’s use of the word as it relates to music and pop culture among other topics.

While the trio was in agreement regarding the fact that black people should be allowed to decide who gets to use the word and who doesn’t, Noah and Charlamagne disagreed on the fact that context dictated when it is okay to use the word.

Charlamagne cited a recent example he used during his “donkey of the day” feature in which he spoke about an American teacher paying his black students $25 to twerk as part of science lesson he was giving.

“I play a game called ‘guess what race it is’ and I’m like ‘no need to guess, these are niggahs’. it’s the truth, I used it in context…” explained Charlamagne.

“I don’t agree with that, I don’t think there is context,” responded Noah.

“To be honest with you, sometimes providing context for the word give it a little bit more of the power it used to have when in fact we’re trying to get it way from that,” said Noah before adding the qualifier that this was merely his opinion and there is no right answer.

“I don’t think there is context to the n-word, right? So I’ll give you an example; it’s like when you hang out with women, they will say ‘bitch’ to each other in five different ways and I don’t even understand what’s going on. I don’t even understand how they doing this but I never jump in like ‘yeah bitch’.”

“Members of the gay community will say things to each other where I’m like ‘I’m not stepping into this using these words, it is not my place nor do I wish for it to be my place’,” added Noah.

Noah and Charlamagne later segued into a debate on religion based on their different backgrounds – Noah was raised in a Christian household while Charlamagne grew up as a Jehovah’s Witness.

The conversation then turned back to politics but the focus this time was on Noah’s take on American politics as an “outsider” of sorts.

They then touched on the fact that Noah is from South Africa, leading Charlamagne to ask for his thoughts on the ongoing problem of the country’s segregation as highlighted by a recent article in The Guardian.

“I think too many time we focus on integration not realising that what we’re really striving for in society is equal access to opportunity,” began Noah.

He then went to explain how he believes that people should not be punished with inferior access to good governance and services just because they choose to live among people they identify with.

It is this lack of access, that Noah believes drove black people to move to “white areas” once the laws governing institutional racism fell away in both the United States and South Africa.

“They had sanitation, they had electricity, they had better schools, THEY HAD, so your mind went ‘I’ve gotta move there to get’.”

Yess then asked Noah about his thoughts on the recent developments with former American news anchor Matt Lauer who was fired after a colleague reported him for sexual misconduct and later accused him of rape.

“This is the constant conversation we need to talk about in society. You know what’s crazy to me is that we have no forum, we have no guidelines, no larger discussions around consent. Let’s be honest, consent is something that has been robbed of many individuals in their lives…” said Noah.

“How can we begin to even have all these conversations though,” asked Charlamagne.

“I honestly don’t know but we need to,” responded Noah.

The pair agreed that a lot needed to be done towards educating society at large about the various intricacies surrounding rape culture and the various ways in which one person could violate another.

Noah then mentioned the role socialisation played in the way people considered and understood consent, citing pop music as an example.

“What we don’t realise is how we are being programmed. What have we thought is acceptable and how do we change those things? People need to write new songs. Miguel… Everyone! That’s a challenge I set to you guys; write consent songs where it’s like very clear.”

Watch the clip below:

Trevor Noah interview

Very important pieces of information discussed pic.twitter.com/FlWLfzSyjU

— laurean (@nnchalnt_) October 24, 2019

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