Daily Show Correspondent, Jessica Williams, comes to Rutgers
As one of the only white males in the room, this was an incredible and reflective experience
I didn’t exactly know what to expect when I was assigned this article, and to attend this event. I recall seeing Ms. Williams on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, but frankly, didn’t know a whole lot about her. I expected a few funny jokes, and a decent turn out from the Rutgers community, but what I got was something else entirely.
Jessica Williams is a 27 year old comedian and actress from Los Angeles, California. She got her first TV gig as a regular on the Nickelodeon show Just for Kicks when she was 16. After attending California State University, she became the youngest correspondent ever on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart at only 21 years old. These days she co-hosts the comedy podcast 2 Dope Queens and is currently working on her own Comedy Central show.
I showed up as soon as the doors opened and one thing was immediately clear… I was one of a very few males attending the event. Immediately, I turned to a friend and said, “I feel like we’re at the wrong party.”
I walked in, opened my laptop and waited for some comedy thunder. Perhaps a discussion around social issues or relationships gone awry. As she walked out onto the stage, sporting a baggy t shirt and long purple dreads, I grew increasingly anxious to find out what path she’d take us on.
The first thing she said right out of the cage was, “Wow, I feel like Oprah up here. Look under your seats, guys! I have something for you,” a few gullible attendees began to check until, “just kidding I don’t have shit for you,” which was met with a road of laughter from the crowd.
The show’s first 30 minutes was filled with pure comedic heat. She talked about asking her grandma not to come back and try to contact her when she died because she really doesn’t give a shit about what she has to say, wanting to be a “weed girl”, doing mushrooms in the Catskills with her white bae, and how seeing college kids like us inspire her to “grab life by the pussy.”
It was crazy, relevant and really funny. And then she added another element – this one more personal. With unfiltered passion she began talking about how women are expected to carry themselves, and the challenges of being a black women in America. It was received with a lot of “yasss’s” from the ladies in attendance. She was taking us on a journey from gut wrenching laughter to deeper reflection. Her delivery was clever, stealthy and completely honest.
Being raised in a black family, she was expected to wear her hair a certain way, act a certain way, dress a certain way. All I kept thinking, as a guy, was, “wow, that sounds like it fucking sucks to have all these expectations of you even if it’s not what you really want to do.”
In church, she was taught that having sex is bad and boys are demonic. She even took part in a ceremony where she pledged to not have sex before marriage, making her feel like her own body wasn’t hers. She would talk about this, yelling it with extreme passion, and immediately switch to talking about the guy that would play “Sexy Black Jesus” in church every year and how she hated him so much because you could tell he “lived for that shit.” She had everyone in the palm of her hand, and was using it to make us laugh and educate us, but it never seemed preachy.
When she got C’s in high school, her mother would say to her, “you can’t be average. There are people who don’t look like you who will get greater opportunities by doing mediocre work, so you are never allowed to be average.” In college, she took her first women and African American studies classes, centered around “the anger of being a black woman” in America, and how you’re supposedly “a bitch or an angry feminist if you get angry.”
She ended the show with talking about getting the opportunity to be on The Daily Show while she was still in college. I have to say, I’m extremely happy Jon Stewart is apparently not a “fuck boy.”
Before she left, she addressed the audience demographic, “white males, thank you for being here.” I’m not mentioning this because I want anyone to think I’m a great person because I attended this event; I mention it because it made me stop and think.
It’s a shame there weren’t more males in attendance, and that I probably wouldn’t have even attended if I wasn’t assigned to cover it. It’s not like she was speaking about purely women’s issues; she was speaking about the fact that there are groups of people in America that don’t get their fair share of opportunity. Even if you don’t agree, it doesn’t hurt to listen. Many of us, including myself, need to be more open to hearing other perspectives.
In the end she urged us to trust our feelings, voice our opinions, and for anyone who is more privileged in the audience, to bring up those who may not have a “voice” in the conversation.