“Today is Opening Day, which means it’s a great day to arrest the killers of Breonna Taylor,” the Tampa Bay Rays tweeted on the first day of the new MLB season. You’ve probably seen numerous versions of this sentiment on Twitter, and while it’s well intentioned and Breonna Taylor’s killers should, in fact, be arrested, The Daily Show host Trevor Noah wants people to stop turning her death into a meme.
“If you are online a lot, you’ve probably seen Breonna Taylor being turned into just another meme. You know, whether it’s putting her name on a picture of Rihanna’s ass, or mentioning her death in some caption of a random selfie,” Noah said during Thursday’s episode. “You have maybe well-intentioned people who want to keep the name trending and they want to see Breonna Taylor get justice, but now [they’re] essentially using her name as a punchline.” Memes, Noah pointed out, aren’t the best way to honor someone, which is why “Obama didn’t dab at John Lewis’ funeral today.”
After playing numerous clips showing “the story of Breonna Taylor,” not as a slogan but as a human being, Noah ended the segment with the following words: “What happened to Breonna Taylor wasn’t a failure of the system, it was the system working as it’s intended. And that is why people are fighting for the system to be changed.”
You can watch the entire video above.
