D.L. Hughley, Trevor Noah And The ‘Stupidest’ Take On Integration: A Debate

Source: Kevin Mazur / Getty

Black History Month will always garner a few interesting conversations in the public eye on the topic of race relations, and this year proved to be no different.

Comedian and media personality Trevor Noah recently managed to spark up what some might consider to be the hottest take of the year after a conversation on his What Now? Podcast that questioned the validity of integration in America led to a wider social discussion and even a pretty hot take by our own head honcho, D.L. Hughley.

It all began after Noah asked his guest, Princeton professor Ruha Benjamin, a simple question: “Do you think that integration was the right move?” Using the secluded-yet-peaceful society of Finland as his prime example, the former Daily Show frontman and his co-host Christiana Mbakwe-Medina took a minute to decipher the question before Professor Benjamin responded in full agreement by stating, “No, I don’t, and I don’t think it’s actually that controversial if you understand that segregation and integration weren’t the only options.” She went on to add, “When you’re being integrated into institutions, into a culture that’s a supremacist culture — a culture that feeds off of hierarchy, that feeds off of insecurity [and] anxiety — why are we being integrated into that?”

D.L. joined TMZ Live not too long after the clip went viral on social media to give his own breakdown of the integration v. segregation debate, calling it, in his words, “maybe the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.” More below, via TMZ:

“D.L. doubled down that integration was necessary because Black schools were severely underfunded — but once schools did start integrating, white kids left, taking resources with them … basically canceling it out.

While D.L. acknowledges racism has improved over time, he points out that policing, banking, housing, and other systems are still flooded with white supremacy — and that some big historic milestones of progress actually happened not that long ago.

He says most white people may not agree with supremacist rhetoric, but they do align with the goal — keeping white people in power.”

Watch the clip below to see what D.L. Hughley had to say in full about Trevor Noah and his “stupidest” take on segregation vs. integration, and continue scrolling to see who the masses are siding with over on social media:

1. People completely missing the concepts that Trevor Noah is talking about is hilarious. Hes not saying Segregation is the answer, hes saying that INTEGRATION of a group into a system that is racially bias and structured to hold the middle and lower class down is doomed to fail.

via @samsonofspite

2. Say what you will about Trevor Noah, he has a gift for making stupid people feel comfortable enough to say idiotic things

via @cogdissidence

3. The physical resources were never adequate, but let’s not get it confused – black teachers in all black schools pre-segregation taught the ENTIRE child, not just the curriculum, and black communities were better off because of it. When Trevor Noah asks the question, I go here.

via @Sulaiman_

4. Trevor Noah is not a good person. He is only critical of white South Africans because they don’t treat him like on of their own. Here are his thoughts on Julius Malema, and on the massacre of 34 miners at Marikana by South African police

via @NobleQAli

5. Trevor is actually correct to question it. “I fear I have integrated my people into a burning house” -MLK

via @Lew_E_Gi

6. I can personally tell you coming from NYC public school system (where intergration was a requirement), I benefitted tremendously from it. Mainly this was done in my High School Years, busing took longer, but worth it! In 6th grade, had at least dozen different nationalities!

via @LifeDelicacy

7. I like Trevor Noah and his book is probably one of the best memoirs I’ve read. But i’m so sick and tired of rich liberal elites trying to be fake Malcom X’s and push this whole “was intergration even worth it” It’s a stupid conversation that shouldn’t be taken seriously.

via @_rotimia

8. I think the issue with the Trevor Noah clip is it’s not clear if he’s talking about ethnicity or culture. If it’s the latter, that part is obvious. If it’s the prior then that is indeed racist.

via @7th_Helix

9. I’ve seen multiple misconstruing that trevor noah quote out of context and it’s a shame because they’re missing out on a beautiful conversation about how we can imagine ourselves out of the rigid boundaries and boxes we’ve placed ourselves and each other in

via @mocutobi

10. why not just say we need to go back to practicing our own cultures and primarily being around members of our own culture. Why say we should segregate again , why create a problem.

via @qui_etes_vous_1

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