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Usually aPatriot Actstorywill take weeks, if not months, to research.
(Eventually the episode was uploaded on the shows Netflix page.)
Though there are some jokes up top, Minhaj mostly forgoes laughs to convey the gravity of his words.
The powerful address has already been watched over 4 million times online.
you might read some excerpts from the transcript or listen to the full episode below.
Tune in toGood Oneevery Tuesday onApple Podcasts,Spotify,Stitcher,Overcast, orwherever you get your podcasts.
On the 25th, George Floyd was murdered.
In the coming days, the video is released and protests erupt around the country.
Ill tell you things in the order in which I saw them happen.
The first was, Im 34 years old.
Im watching Jeanine Pirro be like, We need to charge these cops with murder.
You know this footage shes screaming it.
Youve got that Windows 95 American flag waving behind her like that during her monologue.
I could not believe what I was hearing.
Rush Limbaugh being like, This is horrendous.
This is a murder.
We need to charge these officers and they need to go to prison, period.
I could not believe it.
That was the first.
The second was the mass mobilization across the country.
I saw the protests, but I then started seeing protests in solidarity happening around the world.
Eventheyrejust like, Hey, look, put this rubble together.
We need to make a mural for George Floyd.
And I saw kind of the ripple effect, the downstream effect of what I call the WhatsApp thread.
And Im a child of that generation.
Did Target really have to burn?
I remember that very distinct moment where people were like, What is rioting and looting going to get?
Why couldnt you just be peaceful?
People would have listened.
But there was also a very important data point.
I said, Look.
to the attorney general, Keith Ellison.
We need to up the ante here.
But then theyre never sentenced and they never served time in prison.
A lot of times in America, we think of the race dynamic being a Black-white dichotomy.
But we are intrinsically linked to it, vis-a-vis civil-rights legislation.
A lot of my community, they dont get that.
This has nothing to do with us.
We dont carry your guilt, America.
I dont owe you anything.
And so I kind of had to spell that out.
Weve got to stand with them because they stood for us, you know?
Do I go all the way?
But so much of what we do works within the Overton window.
And it is about timing and jurisprudence.
Our art form, actually, I really believe, is an incredibly controlled medium.
But its actually a very refined thing.
I think we always talk about the jokes that people do especially on this podcast.
It actually doesnt come from I want to pull punches or I dont believe in the art form.
Go there, but know when to go there.
Some of the things that I love the most are things that just intrinsically speak to the heart.
This is an art form.
Its a sea of gingham shirts and Warby Parker glasses.
But we still have a long way to go.
And I think these discussions are really important.
Are writers rooms or organizations irredeemably racist and sexist and homophobic and noninclusive?
At the same time, are they unequivocally equal and equitable and fair?
The road to that progress isnt always straight.
But I think were taking the right steps forward by having uncomfortable conversations.
I think were in this really great moment.
It feels uncomfortable, and Im watching these conversations happen.
But I think its necessary.
That doesnt mean my sister can go.
Thats not particularly great.
