It's not often I feel the need to cite The Daily Show / Jon Stewart for commentary, because Mr. Stewart is so ubiquitous to the fabric of social and political commentary...he doesn't need my help for any promotion, I guess is one way of looking at it.
But TPM shares a clip from last night's show in which Stewart says more than once he "Doesn't know what to say" regarding the Eric Garner NYPD non-indictment.
Maybe it's not "rare" for Stewart to not be as verbose, but in this context, he can't be more right.
"Post-Racial" Society? Why, because we have a Black President? My Ass.
Police Accountability? Ha! It's pretty damn clear that Grand Juries aren't there to prosecute police officers who do their jobs fatally wrong, but to protect them for reasons.
But Stewart's main quip about people wondering "If we live in a society at all" is probably the most profound, because for many people both of color and not of color, that's got to be a question weighing on everyone's minds these days.
The Greatest Country in the World™ is still rife with every "-ism" you can think of. Sure, that's not unique to America, but in what ways is this country really succeeding these days compared to our other First World counterparts?
Every day, there are people who don't met the Privilege Trifecta of being white, male, and heterosexual who see justice not just simply denied, but denied so spectacularly that it's almost as if what passes for "society" these days is saying to these people: You aren't worthy of basic human decency.
And all the while, a certain class of aggrieved white folks can't shut up about how they don't want to hear about "the race card", or they think women (even white women) need to get with the sandwich makin', or think that non-heterosexual people are somewhere between amusing to them or are Walking Cesspools of Sin...to say nothing of the vile, pro-brutality comments seen floating around The Twitter last night from the PoliceOne website.
Hard right wingers can't stop flapping their gums about America and how "Exceptional" she is; But in two-thousand-and-fucking-fourteen, the only thing "Exceptional" about America is how backwards looking and discriminatory it remains after things like "All men are created equal" and "We the people" were, you know, tossed out as mere ideas of how the country might serve as a bastion of "Liberty, and Justice, for All".
If Jon Stewart needs something funny to talk about in the wake of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, maybe he should start there. I mean, "Liberty and Justice For All"? What is the deal with that?