Trevor Noah: Police Training in U.S. Creates ‘State Racism’

Travor Noah shared his thoughts on racial profiling in America and said he believes police training in the U.S. creates “state racism” during Tuesday night’s episode of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show.

In a clip posted Tuesday, the Daily Show host discussed the fatal police-involved shooting of Philando Castile by a Minnesota police officer last summer.

“The conversation gets caught up in racism as it pertains to black and white but I don’t believe that that is the conversation,” Noah told the studio audience. “I believe that the police force as a whole is trained in such a way that it creates state racism that is different.”

Noah, who was born in South Africa and moved to the U.S. six years ago, says he has been pulled over by police “at least eight to 10 times.”

“I’ve been stopped in a Tesla. Like, a Tesla, people. Like I don’t know what silent crime you think I’m on my way to commit, but I’ve been stopped in a Tesla,” he joked.

“Whenever I get pulled over, the first thing I do is throw my arms out the window,” Noah explained, saying “It looks so stupid when you see me but I’d rather have the cop go, ‘You are weird.'”

“I’m like, ‘OK, cool, but you saw where my hands are.'” he said.

The lengths that he believes he has to go to when being stopped by police are “just part of a black person’s life in America,” Noah said, adding, “It’s the truth. I’ve been stopped a sh*t ton of times.”

Trevor talks to the audience about being stopped by police as a black man. #betweenthescenes pic.twitter.com/Ew7ByVyrub

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) June 21, 2017

Noah’s comments came amid news that Jeronimo Yanez, the officer who fatally shot Castile, was found not guilty of all charges, including second-degree manslaughter and two counts of intentional discharge of a firearm that endangers safety.

Castile’s death was live-streamed in a widely shared Facebook video, making it the latest in a string of high-profile police-involved shootings of unarmed black men.

 

Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @JeromeEHudson