'Wild Black Women' take on trying to educate Trevor Noah

Angelina Hurley and Chelsea Bond generously invited South African comedian Trevor Noah onto their radio show to explain himself.

Wild Black Women and Trevor Noah

Angelina Hurley, Trevor Noah and Chelsea Bond. Source: Instagram

It's unclear whether Trevor Noah knew what he was signing up for, but then again the radio show is called 'Wild Black Women'.

With his comedy act touring Australia, the Brisbane radio show hosts Angelina Hurley and Dr Chelsea Bond recorded a special edition of their program on Thursday ahead of Mr Noah's Melbourne performance.

And these Wild Black Women were always intending to ask him if he was going to apologise.

Ahead of Mr Noah's Australian tour, a clip from a 2013 standup routine surfaced in which he denigrates Aboriginal women. That joke starts by saying Aboriginal women are not attractive and ends with him talking 'special' sexual powers and pretending to play the didgeridoo.

But on their radio show, which , Mr Noah instead asked the women which part of the joke offended them.

“It’s the logic that underpinned the joke,” Dr Bond replied.

“In this country, white men have long joked about their entitlements upon sexual violence towards Aboriginal women," she said.

"There’s really offensive terms that are still used in this country that Aboriginal women are not necessarily desirable or attractive but they are good for something else and that is all."
“We’ve got women in custody dying at the hands of the state, that doesn’t make international news but what does make international news is when there’s a joke about the possibility of all Aboriginal women not being attractive."

In explaining what they were hoping to get out of having Mr Noah on the show, Dr Bond said they weren't after 'a pound of flesh', as someone suggested, but instead an apology.

But they didn't get an apology.

Mr Noah said “sorry has too much currency”, that his actions speak louder than words and he would not make a joke like that - from five years ago - today.
“The context in South Africa is not the same, we are not a minority in South Africa. We are a country that has conquered the other way around, we are a county that has flipped the power structure," Mr Noah said.

"In South Africa that joke is delivered and taken is completely different when you move over to Australia.”

Speaking after the interview, Dr Bond and Ms Hurley reflected on having to educate Mr Noah and the lack of an apology.

“I could see it in his face, but we weren’t going to get it from him verbally because he had to stick with what he went with originally,” Ms Hurley said.

They subsequently attended Mr Noah's comedy performance, and added an end note to their podcast.

“He seemed genuinely to care, but we sat in a show tonight where he equated genocide with stealing a laptop. We are not laptops,” Dr Bond said.

The women were also disappointed Mr Noah gave not acknowledgement of Traditional Owners, or of the two of them sitting in the audience.

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3 min read
Published 24 August 2018 4:48pm
By Brooke Fryer
Source: NITV News


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