Tressie McMillan Cottom
Appearances
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
To be able to observe something accurately doesn't mean you diagnose it properly. Yes, that's what I mean. Right. He is the only politician out there right now who says a thing is a thing.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Yeah, because you hate who I hate. As long as you're not a Boston Celtics fan.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Oh, yeah. And if you have the issue, we don't have it. Yeah. You care about immigration, so we can't. That's my thing.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
That doesn't mean. This is why I need Tressie around.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Oh, your belief, like what you actually cared about?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
It was extremely popular, but maybe not for all the right reasons.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Oh, that would be amazing.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Oh, it's taken on a lot of the contours of English class based racism. I think for the same reason. Yeah. Class became so important to the Democratic Party. Because they are trying to serve the interests of a donor class who has a lot of money while keeping the interests for their identity, we're progressive, we're liberals, aligned with working class, poor people, minority people, immigrants.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
So to reconcile those two things, right? Think about who you have to be to have both of those things exist for you simultaneously. You got to be delusional in kind of the same way that English people are who will tell me to my face. we don't have racism here. We do have class, but we don't have racism.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
As if these are two entirely distinct, but you have to believe that when you have this like really structured class system. You have a monarchy. That's right. You have this really formal system of immigration, right? And I think the Democrats have oddly kind of a modified version of that for much of the same reasons. Their class politics right now do not align with, With their race politics.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
And so you get a lot of people who make do with that for the same reason everybody went nuts over their results to the quiz. I mean, you think about who the typical New York Times reader is. Daily show employee, perhaps. And what they realize is that they have accepted a lot of casual racism and policy. Yes. Yes. Yes.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
And one of the things that Donald Trump did really well that they still don't have an answer for is he pointed out the hypocrisy of that.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
In the way that you and I always experienced it because we were always the black people vis-a-vis the Democrats. So we knew it was hypocritical. But for him to point it out and do it so effectively is part of the reason why I think they are spinning out.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
We love that data, by the way, as sociologists say, which we I'm talking about sometimes. We love the OKCupid data because our personal lives are the only place left in this culture where we feel safe being racist, classist, elitist and ableist. Because we say what? It's just our preference. I can't help who, you know, gets me going.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Car sales show? No, I didn't see that. Oh, yeah. Only thing I was missing was Vanna White.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
That's right. To sort of like catfish Republican men. No, I didn't hear about. Right. So there was this thing they would go, OK, you know, you're never going to be with somebody hot like me again unless you change your politics. And so they would like pretend to be Republicans to out them to find out where they were on January 6th. They make the romantic match, right?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
You got to have that part. Very, very hot.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Yes. Because they are apparently, according to the data, as you know… They are at a disadvantage on apps, conservative men. They all complain about it. Nobody wants to date them. Then January 6th happens, and I think this started as someone said they recognized a guy they thought they saw on one of the apps once in the videos. Oh, my goodness.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
So the women start going on and going, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know that guy. I've seen that guy. And so they were catfishing them, pretending to be conservative or interested in conservative men. And then the chat would go, yeah, so where were you last week? That is so interesting. And it like outed like three or four people.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
They were very clear about that.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Let me tell you why.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
She was like, why don't we eat the apple?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Male's basic nature being lying, though.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Yes. But there's only one man in the garden. I would think that Adam was too stupid to think through the logic of, hey, apple could be good. Right? Like to get to that conclusion. That's what I'm saying. I'm just saying. Now, I'm not sure that Eve convinced him so much. She was like, yo, I'm going to try the apple. And he's like, not without me, you ain't.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Because I do think there's a basic nature here that we're talking about.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Are we on the same algorithm? I think so, yeah.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
A return to conservatism.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Oh, I think that's we talk about economic anxiety. You guys are talking about that. And I agree. I think we totally misdiagnosed like that whole economic anxiety argument. And the case with women, I think, is a perfect example of how we misdiagnosed it. Yes, people are anxious. That doesn't mean that they should be anxious. What people are responding to is perceived loss, not real loss.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
That's why you're like, what do you mean? They're rich. They're not economically anxious. Yeah, they are. It's just not real. Yeah. That's where I think the gender piece becomes really prevalent. Because what I am seeing happen, same, women in my life who were all pussy-headed out about me, right? They were throwing pussy hats at me. And they were like, we got to go.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
I had to have on a pantsuit for Hillary, right? I'm with her. I'm with her. And today, you know who they are with? A dude in a fleece vest and khakis. It's like they look at, I think, they are looking accurately at a post-war reality, a world where truly the United States government is the most powerful force in the world still. And it has declared war on women. Go back home.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
We want you out of work. We want you out of schools. Too much, too far, too fast. And I think you look at that and you go, I'm hitching myself to the thing that provides some cover for Right. And I think that performing conservatism, even if it's just in how you look, everybody's getting the haircuts now. The natural hair movement.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
The shift from the liberal haircut, by the way, to the conservative haircut.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Trevor, honestly, you will.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Done. Folks are going back to the blowout. Relaxers. And the relaxers. That's why they were mad when the science came out and said relaxers might be causing cancer. Yeah. Because the transition had started. And I think it's the same reason, the same thing for Black women, by the way. We have been at the forefront of, like, economic progress for women. That sort of generational forefront, right?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Black women, women writ large, outpacing men in education, going to college. We're almost at parity in the most male fields worldwide. law and medicine, right?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Okay. Yeah. Black women had already exceeded black men, but white women were now coming forward. I mean, we were almost at parity. And now you see this like hostile sort of response to women. And I think you start going, if nothing else, let me look the part. And again, I'm not sure any of that's conscious.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
I think as you look around and the aesthetics, for example, of the Trump administration are really clear. Blonde. Blonde. As blonde as you can get it. And I think that you take that as a cue for this is what we do now if you want a little bit of safety. Absolutely.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Can I just say about stay-at-home girlfriends, I'm an oxymoron of that. Pushes my buttons in a particular kind of way. Tell me more. What is a girlfriend? A stay-at-home wife is only allowed to be a stay-at-home wife with the benefits of it, however marginal its benefits are, because the state says he owes you the money. Yeah. If you a girlfriend.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Who is going to make the sucker give you the money? But that's what I'm saying.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
I see these young girls, and I feel like I'm turning into an auntie, but I see these young girls, and I'm like, who raised you?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Get the bag. Yes! Do you know what people's grandmas did for you to be able to get the bag?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
That's what's supposed to happen.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
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What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
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What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
That's hilarious. And we ran it into the ground. That is hilarious. And yet she can't fathom the idea because that was her point, by the way. She was like, I don't have anything to do when we're in the car because I don't have a smartphone. Yeah. So you look out the window. I looked out the window for 20 years. But the concept, and I just don't think the brains are prepared.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
And I do think that a lot of what we see at sort of a societal scale is that chronic anxiety.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Yeah. Everything should happen. I should be able to predict everything. You know, the total fear of any risk. Missing the bus. No big deal. You missed it. You waited for the next one. Now it would be considered like some major.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
I am so sorry to say this. Like, I am so sorry you asked me this question because I have an answer. I've thought about it so much and it is not a good or fun answer. But yes, I don't want to be dystopian. I actually don't think it'll be like, you know, I don't think it'll be the type of revolution that maybe some of us imagine and hope for. And I don't think it is like a complete, you
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
But I do think it will take the firsthand experience of the loss of a functioning bureaucratic state, of the type of security. I don't think we understand how much like emotional security we get from knowing the government works, from not having to worry about whether water is coming, for not having to worry about whether when you call 9-1-1.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Oh, we should maybe quarantine you. Oh, I'm the problem. That's my takeaway here.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Yeah, but he doesn't say it's all digital. No, it's all computer, like your grandma. It's all computer. Yeah, they put computer in car.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
It was a Republican utopia. Yes.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Yeah, that's right.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
And people can see it firsthand. The American sickness, though, is that they would look at that story and go. the solution isn't more taxes. The solution for me is I need to become that rich guy. Yeah.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
That's the American disease. That we look at that and what we diagnose, again, back to like the wrong diagnosis. It was like, oh, if I want the state to work for me, I just better become rich. Now, everybody cannot, of course, be rich, which is why we created governments. But what we don't understand, I think Texas is a great example of this. Texas is like, again, one of these
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
you know, utopian political realities for people who believe in, like, the core tenets of the GOP's political platform. But it only works because everybody around them is not a Republican utopia. Wow. You need the government to be somewhere. And so you can only be a state like Florida. You can only be a state like Texas that says, we don't use the federal government. See us?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
You know, big F you to the federal government. Well, yeah, you know that because all of the rest of us, however— fund it and keep it going and you draw from it and you still need it, right? People learn that during COVID. We saw it firsthand. The thing about this country is our need for ongoing amnesia about how vulnerable we are keeps us from doing the right diagnosis.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Yeah, you look at that and go, the rich guy was able to get Private firefighters. And you go, okay.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Yep, that's the man with the nuclear codes for you.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Do you know who's sitting somewhere right now going, are you kidding me? It is Hillary Clinton. Do you remember when they made fun of her because she couldn't work the soda machine in a convenience store?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Yes, campaign trail. So, you know, America, you know, being a regular American. So they go to like a 7-Eleven. And I always felt sorry for her because I do think those machines actually are overly complicated. And I really felt a rare moment of deep empathy for Hillary Rodham Clinton because she was like, she's got her cup, you know? And it used to be a physical thing. You'd press that lever.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Well, that's not no more. You know that thing now that spins your cup and it does and you mix and flavors and all that. And she was overwhelmed. And they acted like that woman had lost her mind.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Yes. Now Donald Trump can get in a car and say computer.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Oh, Howard Dean. Howard Dean.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Yeah, because, baby, you've seen the tablet. You know the idea. That's what I mean. Yeah.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Like he's just doing it. He's doing it. And he said he's going to do it.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Okay, but to be fair, as a black American, I love that one. Let me just tell you, the number of times I've heard an old black woman say, they dying like they ain't never died before. And I thought, okay, well now that one, I can kind of get with. People are dying who have never died before. Never died before. Yeah, that one. Yeah, we have a deep funeral culture where I'm from.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
And I was like, I could see that one popping off. But think about Donald Trump or the moments like you. I'm a little obsessed with these moments where he's clearly revealed. And I think a lot about why didn't that work? Why didn't that work? Because the great story to me of Donald Trump is, you know, he's New York's version of a country bumpkin. Yes. He's not a Manhattanite.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
He was never accepted here. That's what a lot of his grudge is about. He learned, however, that if you just win enough, they will at least give you a ticket. He knows he's not invited because they like him. But, you know, he learned that. And I think he just got still. And I hate all the psychological explanations. Why? Why do you hate them? Oh. Because I just think it's very American of us.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Because you're a sociologist. Yes, that's part of it. This is absolutely professional envy. But because psychologists keep winning and I'm not sure they have all the answers. You know what I'm saying? But I also think it's like very American of us to think that, oh, it's only true if he really meant it. If there's something deep inside. Oh, okay.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
And I'm like, it doesn't matter whether he means it. It matters that he does it. And I'm like, you know, I don't really care if it's because he's insecure. Lots of people are insecure and they still don't do horrible things to people. So I think we can kind of over-rely on psychology to excuse away bad behavior. Yeah. especially in politics.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
I'm like, does it really matter if he really hates trans people? Like, why are we so obsessed?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
That's exactly right.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Yes, it's the billionaire problem.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
No, I've never thought of it that way.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
And it changes your whole personality. I'm like, this guy has a trip. I've never thought of that.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
That's my Kanye thing. Oh, that's your theory.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
I can't believe I never thought of that. He displays all the traits. The violence, the, yeah, the unpredictability.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
So my thing on that is I think this might be a division of labor problem, which I mean, like, does everybody need to understand it to condemn it? Right. The behavior. It may just be that, OK, there are people who will puzzle out the how and the why. And then the rest of us, I think it takes a little humility to say, hey, I don't do that. I don't know anything about it.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
But I do know that he said this thing that I find abhorrent. And so that's enough for me. I think the problem is there are too many people who feel like that. They can diagnose. So for them that I need to personally understand before I can act.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
He's chronically online. Yes, he is. Let me tell you what the through line is for me that resolves, I would say about 80% of this for me. And I'm like you, I've spent a lot, a lot, a lot of time thinking about this. And kind of like holding that voter up in like perverse fascination, like what's happening there.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
I strongly agree. His political instincts are out of this world.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
We act like he is reckless to an unfathomable degree. But I have seen him, sometimes cakewalked up to a line that you would assume he would cross. Yeah. And he doesn't.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
Is that what they're doing?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
That's a follow-up question I had personally.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
And I do think your point gets at it, Trevor, which is I'm not sure that understand is the right word. I don't think you need to understand to act.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
That's the difference. But his diagnosis feels right. Yes. That is what I think, by the way, has cut across class and across race. Yes. This is what, like, my great aunt is 91, 92 years old. And she goes, no, you are right. He is right. There are a lot of people out there who shouldn't be here.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom [VIDEO]
So remove them. That seems like the most straightforward solution. Now, removing them means violating the Constitution, you know, violating human rights. Not having enough planes. Right. There are all types of complications to that. But remove them resonates deeply with a lot of people for whom observing the problem is the diagnosis of the problem. Yes. Yeah. Remove problem.