There are two words that seem to terrify the folks over at Fox News: “Black woman.” And now that Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has officially announced he will be retiring at the end of his current term, all eyes are on Joe Biden, who vowed during his campaign that if given the chance to appoint a new SCOTUS, he would choose a Black woman. Needless to say, as Trevor Noah shared, Fox News’ most prominent anchors don’t really seem to know what to do with this information… except to endlessly deliver one bad take after the next.
On Wednesday night’s edition of The Daily Show, Noah shared a highlight reel of some of the most amazingly tone-deaf quotes to come from the Fox News team. Sean Hannity, seemingly oblivious to any sense of irony (or history), was offended that “right off the bat, [Biden] is excluding all potential candidates who are not African-American women.”
Tucker Carlson, meanwhile—empath that he is—suggested that “You almost got the impression that Joe Biden believes all Black women are the same. That they’re identical… This is exactly why decent Americans hated segregation. It dehumanized people. And why isn’t there an American Indian on the court? Or a genderqueer? Why isn’t there an Afghan refugee under consideration?” (For the record: As The Daily Beast noted, Carlson also snarkily suggested that “the obvious choice” to fill the SCOTUS vacancy was Bridget Floyd, sister of George Floyd… Which wasn’t racist at all.)
Noah totally got where Carlson was coming from and also wants to know why there’s not a “sexy M&M under consideration?”
For the second time this week, Noah was tasked with delivering a history lesson about Blackness and racism to his viewers:
“There’s a lot to unpack here. But most importantly: Being a Black woman isn’t the qualification, alright? Joe Biden is going to pick who is ALSO qualified. These people act like Biden is just gonna show up at the mall and be like, ‘Yo, Shaniqua—come with me!’… No! She’s going to be qualified. And why is that a bad thing? Why not try to make the Supreme Court a little more representative of the country it represents?”
Noah did concede that he understands why the Fox pundits are so upset. “I feel bad for Tucker Carlson,” he admitted. “Of course he’s upset. Think about it: For almost all of American history, the entire Supreme Court was white dudes with bowties and weird hair. Now that’s all gone. It’s all gone! Where’s Tucker’s representation?”
You can watch the full clip above.