By Ian Hanchett
On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher said that “Balkanizing our nation will certainly cause us to lose” a country “that most black people now have found a decent life in, with a relatively high standard of living, and don’t want to lose.” And that we must “stop regarding this new woke segregation as if it’s some sort of cultural advancement. It’s not. Ask Yugoslavia.”
Maher began by saying, “The only time there should be two national anthems is when the other team is from Canada.”
He added, “I am what you might call an old-school liberal who was brought up with the crazy idea that segregating by race is bad. That’s what I was talking about. And again, when it comes to an anthem, it doesn’t have to be the one we currently use, but it has to be just one. You know, because it’s a national anthem, and symbols of unity matter. And purposefully fragmenting things by race reinforces a terrible message, that we are two nations, hopelessly drifting apart from each other. That’s not where we were even ten years ago, and it’s not where we should be now.”
Maher further stated, “If we have two anthems, why not three, or five? Why not a women’s anthem, a Latino anthem, a gay, trans, indigenous people’s, and Asian-Pacific islander anthem? Because I’m not dealing with you, I’m not speaking to you is not a way you can run a country and most people of all backgrounds understand that already and don’t even want to try to do it that way. I’m not out of step. Believing in separate but equal, that’s out of step, by 67 years.”
He added, “[A] recent survey of 173 colleges found that 42% offer segregated residences, 46% offer segregated orientation programs, 72% host segregated graduation ceremonies. Well, congratulations, liberal parents, you’ve just paid 100 grand for your kid to move to Biloxi, MS in 1948. … I mean, we’re a nation that professes diversity is our strength, but now half the kid’s dorm rooms are determined by racial purity? The University of Michigan-Dearborn thought it would be super-progressive to set up one virtual cafe for people of color and a separate one for white people. You see what I mean about becoming so woke you come back out the racist side?”
He concluded, “Yes, America was born from the original sin of slavery, and redress for that is certainly still in order. But not at the cost of destroying a country that most black people now have found a decent life in, with a relatively high standard of living, and don’t want to lose. And Balkanizing our nation will certainly cause us to lose it. We need to stop regarding this new woke segregation as if it’s some sort of cultural advancement. It’s not. Ask Yugoslavia.”