Trevor Noah Says Rac*sm Is Better in South Africa Than in The USA

Added: 2026-05-11

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[00:00:07][singing] Like, comment The biggest difference between racism in America and and racism in South Africa is I find that South African racism is and was a lot more blatant. And so there's more of an acknowledgement of it as an idea. And I always say to people, I know it's strange to say this, but I often think that was the greatest gift the apartheid government gave us is that it was like it was there. It was happening to you.

[00:00:31]It wasn't hidden. So you would just like we don't want this. PEOPLE WOULD FIGHT.

[00:00:34]STOP THIS APARTHEID IT'S RACISM. AND THEN the government would be like, yes, of course it is racism. That's what we're doing to you. The blacks must not do this. But then what happened in America is you know you hit that period where like they started changing things.

[00:00:47]I don't know if it was around Nixon and they were like, oh we got to be silent about this. And then it wasn't blatant anymore. And so I I always thought that's a terrible thing to do to people because now people have to be like detectives of their own racism just to figure it out. So let me give you an example. In South Africa the government would just say blacks cannot live in these areas. You're black, you don't live here. Now you know I'm black, I don't live here.

[00:01:09]I don't like it, but I don't live here.

[00:01:11]You know what I'm saying? But then in America you'd be like, can I get a home loan? And they'd be like, no.

[00:01:19]And you'd be like, why? And they'd be like, Okay, I think that um Trevor is a little ill-informed. I I understand what he's saying. I'm picking up what he's putting down, but it goes over everyone's head that we had blatant racism. After slavery, the reconstruction era, then we had Jim Crow for literally nearly a hundred years.

[00:01:42]Nearly 100 years there was blatant in your face racism that black Americans experienced with signs saying black people not black coloreds. The irony. We were called coloreds. Now everybody's a person of color and it's just a lot going to we will get into that another person and at another day.

[00:02:01]Coloreds only, you know, we couldn't go to certain schools. We couldn't live in certain towns like all of these things absolutely happened in the United States of America. And if we're here to say, "Oh, and then one day Nixon woke up."

[00:02:12]No, Nixon didn't wake up. We fought for civil rights. Yes, there is systemic racism that still exists, but they're not allowed to no longer put it blatantly in your face. And then you all had apartheid that lasted 46 years. So, we experienced blatant section of segregation longer than you guys actually experienced blatant apartheid. Your apartheid ended in 1994. Our Jim Crow ended in 1965, right?

[00:02:41]And on top of that, present day, you all still have towns that are predominantly white where you can't go.

[00:02:48]One of them is called Oriana. I hope I'm pronouncing it right. We still have towns in the United States of America called sundown towns.

[00:02:57]Hello. There's still places in America where it may not be legal to do it, but we can clearly see and we clearly know that we can't we're not welcome to go to certain places.

[00:03:11]Because, you know, the the the extreme white nationalist, the triple K members, they enact extreme violence and they get you they do it when you're alone or, you know, when you're not like in a pack, but they always make it a point to run in packs like rabid animals. Like that's what they do.

[00:03:28]So, while I understand what he's saying, we're not going to make it seem like we didn't have overt racism and it is something that we continue to fight to dismantle. And now when you blatantly discriminate against us, we have more leverage and more legs to stand on because we can actually sue you now. You know, like there are laws that are on our side to help us in situations like that. I don't know that it's the same over in South Africa. I heard that um you know, a a black South African woman was fed to pigs by by Afrikaners, the white South African farmers. So, there's still things going on in South Africa where it's not so overtly in your face anymore.

[00:04:12]Similar to how it is in America. So, to just say like we just so ill-informed and don't know what the hell is going on or to make it seem like we've never experienced blatant racism where it was like clear-cut like you don't go here, you go here, you are designated to this area, you Like that's just not that's misinformation.

[00:04:34]Okay, spread love is the Brooklyn way.