Forget The New Normal. Check out Kamau Bell’s Totally Biased, if you haven’t already.
Salon heralds Bell for “taking aim at the outrageous and absurd, but from a more racially aware perspective than either [Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert]” (http://www.salon.com/topic/totally_biased/).
But is that necessary, you may be wondering.
In his pilot episode, Bell challenges the implicit stance in some mainstream media coverage of the Sikh temple shooting in Wisconsin that if the community had actually been Muslim (as opposed to just mistaken for Muslim), the white supremacist attack would have been less shocking and therefore, less tragic (because after all, violent hate crimes against Muslims are more justified?)
He then goes on to educate the audience as to the differences among:
- Muslims
- Sikhs
- sheiks (an allusion to when Mitt Romney referred to the “sheiks” in expressing his condolences over this tragedy)
- Shaq(uille O’Neal), and (just to be thorough)
- geeks
I appreciate Bell’s edgy humor that pushes–and sometimes shoves–us to see the racially specific implications and consequences of everyday news (this month, Bell joked, “Hey! Rep. Todd Akin, if women can’t get pregnant from legitimate rape, then how come there are so many light-skinned black people walking around Alabama?”) Yes, it’s tough. And, it’s history.
And I also appreciate the intelligence and perspective behind his humor: like his position that “a socially liberal, fiscally conservative running mate” for Romney would really push Obama’s thinking and action.
Fundamentally, Bell helps us see the what’s happening in the world around us by helping us get that “we” are all humans, and “we” don’t all walk through the world the same way.
If you have a chance, I encourage you to check him out (http://www.hulu.com/totally-biased-with-w-kamau-bell).
rethinking diversity 
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