Bill Maher: Black people must demand whites ‘stop culturally appropriating how mad they are about racism’

HBO’s Bill Maher argued in his closing monologue Friday night that “white people need to stop trying to cancel other people” who are well intentioned “but don’t get it exactly right on the first try.”

The “Real Time” host voiced concerns during his show that “the guardians of ‘gotcha'” will “thrust us back towards a resegregation of sorts.”

“Black people have to demand white people stop culturally appropriating how mad they are about racism,” Maher said from his backyard home studio in Los Angeles. “It’s great that Caucasians have finally joined the fight for racial justice in unprecedented numbers, but hating racism the most? You can’t steal that! Elvis stealing Little Richard’s act — that’s bad enough.”

The host broached several examples of shaming attempts and misunderstandings, including mocking an incident involving Oakland, Calif., Mayor Libby Schaaf (D) this month.

Schaaf had launched a hate crime investigation over what were described as “nooses” found in a city park that turned out to be an exercise rigging constructed by an African American man.

“Why is this white woman seeing racism where a black man isn’t?” Maher asked. “The mayor also said, ‘Intentions don’t matter,’ but they do matter. And white people need to stop trying to cancel other white people whose heart was in the right place but don’t get it exactly right on the first try.”

Black people have to demand that white people stop culturally appropriating how mad they are about racism. It’s great that Caucasians have finally joined the fight for racial justice, but hating racism the most? #BlackLivesMatter #VirtueSignaling #SJW pic.twitter.com/4snH4vftZa

— Bill Maher (@billmaher) June 27, 2020

The host also pointed to Sacramento, Calif., sportscaster Grant Napear, who was fired earlier this month for tweeting “ALL LIVES MATTER” in response to a fan’s question regarding the Black Lives Matter movement.

Hey!!!! How are you? Thought you forgot about me. Haven’t heard from you in years. ALL LIVES MATTER…EVERY SINGLE ONE!!! https://t.co/DfzKl3w0jm— Grant Napear (@GrantNapearshow) June 1, 2020

“I worry that the kind of tensions that the guardians of ‘gotcha’ are creating is going to make people afraid to mingle at all and thrust us back towards a resegregation of sorts, where instead of just seeing a person and not a color, now we’re only seeing color,” Maher said. “Maybe this is old-school liberalism talking, but I don’t think that’s the way to go.”
 
Liberalism, he added, “should be about lifting people up instead of slapping people down who are trying to say, ‘I’m on your side.'”

The commentary from Maher echoes a theme he has underscored on his program before regarding “cancel culture.”

“I think this ‘cancel culture’ is a cancer on progressivism,” Maher said on March 7. “Liberals always have to fight a two-front war. Republicans only have to fight the Democrats; Democrats have to fight the Republicans and each other.”

“Real Time” launched on HBO in 2003.