On Wednesday, June 15, comedian and correspondent for "The Daily Show," Hasan Minhaj, gave a speech at the Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association Dinner in Washington. In front of members of Congress and the media, he proceeded to roast them on their inaction to pass legislation and make changes to help stop gun violence, turning the chuckling audience extremely uncomfortable. Here are eight reasons why you should love what happened.
1. He was brave enough to call out Congress.
He held nothing back as he accosted the members of Congress for their low approval rating, the average age of the members being 62 and their inaction on gun control. He said, “You make almost $200,000 a year to write rules, to make our society better, not tweet to tell us about your ‘thoughts and prayers,’ to write rules to make our society better.”
2. He made fun of Donald Trump.
He said, "Brown people, we're going to get deported. This is just my farewell tour, I'm saying
goodbye to America."
3. He brought up the NRA’s influence.
Like everything in this world, money plays a big part in influence, which is a major reason why gun laws haven’t been passed. He said, “And right now since 1998, the NRA has given $3.7 million to Congress. There are 294 sitting members of Congress that have accepted contributions from the NRA, and that doesn’t even include the millions of dollars from outside lobbying.”
4. He talked about the bias in the media.
He spoke about the media’s refusal to call Donald Trump a racist, specifically the New York Times. Then, he said about Buzzfeed, the place that refuses to accept money from the GOP and Trump, “The place which tells you which
Disney princess you are, they have more journalistic integrity than the New York Times. For the record, I’m Jasmine, and you’re all Cruella de Ville."
5. He reached out to the marginalized communities that are discriminated against every day.
He spoke to everybody about how we need to be doing more and stepping up to preventing discrimination. He said, “Every day in our workplaces, our homes and our religious institutions, there is cover or overt discrimination or phobia towards people of different religious, racial or sexual walks of life. And we just sit there and we let it happen, because it doesn't affect our bottom line."
6. Hasan brought up Congress’ legacy.
Maybe someday we’ll look back at this Congress and wonder why they didn’t do more to save lives. He said, “And is this what you want your legacy to be? That you were a could’ve-done-something Congress but you didn’t because of outside lobbying? That you were complicit in the deaths of thousands of Americans?”
7. He asked the question that we have all been wondering: What’s it going to take for Congress to finally step up and pass a bill that fights gun violence?
Is it the money? Because the NRA has such a large influence due to all of the money they give to so many members of Congress. He said, "So I don't know if this is like a Kickstarter thing, but if $3.7 million can buy political influence to take lives, if we raise $4 million, would you guys take that to save lives?"
8. He acknowledged that being a Congress member is difficult.
Last, but most importantly, he ended the speech by not holding anything back and mentioning how they use Twitter to offer their condolences but they aren’t providing any action when we look to them to make changes. "I know being a member of Congress is hard — you've got to placate your base, you've got to look out for re-election, you've got to answer to lobbyists — but please persevere because our 'thoughts and prayers' are with you."
