[loso]

He was acknowledging that their origins were African. Which they were. The humorist that you are talking about is Trevor Noah and he is from South Africa. He is an immigrant. So it's not really a US thing. Its a being subjected to a double standard thing. In the US when you're a minority and you are doing something positive you are considered without doubt an American. But when its something negative or objectionable to some people race comes in to play really quickly.

When I was growing up it was common for the news to report the race of a subject when it was a black person doing the crime. But you knew the person was white when race was not mentioned at all. In the past few years that has gotten better but it was definitely a thing in the not too distant past.

When a large segment of the population thinks its okay for police to profile based on race its hard for people subjected to it to not think about race in all avenues of life. Because its something that you deal with on a regular basis.

[weberc2]

It’s not a minority thing; whites deal with the same (e.g., “[whites][0] [have][1] [a mass][2] [shooting problem][3]”). It’s just different groups that apply the double standard.

[0]: https://www.newsweek.com/white-men-have-committed-more-mass-...

[1]: https://www.salon.com/2017/10/02/americas-white-man-problem-...

[2]: https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/9/1747592/-How-America...

[3]: https://psmag.com/social-justice/white-men-aggrievement-and-...

[tor0viking]

The issue is that by people from minority racial groups becoming hyper sensitive to race they end up perpetuating racial division.

Trevor Noah's comments are an example. His view of the world is probably significantly influenced by race due to real or perceived discrimination he has experienced, but by his commentaries focusing on race he pushes a worldview that directs people's attention to the fault lines of race rather than the things which unite us in spite of racial differences.

[loso]

Acknowledging race is not being hypersensitive about race. The problem is in what you said "pushes a worldview that directs people's attention to the fault lines of race rather than the things which unite us in spite of racial differences". You have the luxury to not think about it because it doesn't affect you directly. When you're a minority its something that you have to think about either consciously or subconsciously. Because you run into it frequently. Depending on where you live and who you deal with it can be something you deal with on a daily basis or something you deal with every now and then. But it will be something you deal with.

[tor0viking]

And it doesn't have to be that way. The racialization of everything in our political and social discourse does not help. The political Left has become hypersensitive to race.

In America we have constructed a society where racial minorities can be more successful and more integrated into the broader society than in any other country on Earth. Racial divisions of the past are melting away. And yet the Identity Politics of the Far Left have come to dominate the worldview of many in a way that pushes them away from MLK's vision of a world in which people don't care about race, to one in which all they seem to care about is race.

We are well on our way to achieving MLK's dream, but it is in spite of Identity Politics.