Source: WWD / Getty
Late-night host Bill Maher is under fire for his “boneheaded and wrong” recent comments on gun violence and race in Chicago in a segment on his show.
The Real Time with Bill Maher panel segment this past Friday (April 21st) featured Maher and University of Washington professor Daniel Bessner in a discussion on race, crime, and poverty. During that discussion, Maher asked Brown University professor & economist Glenn Loury about Chicago: “Like Chicago, most of the shootings are young Black men killing other young Black men. Is that not correct?” When Loury answered in the affirmative, Maher responded: “OK, much more than what the cops do. Why doesn’t anybody talk about that? Why aren’t there a hundred giant Black celebrities, who would have the respect of those people, saying, ‘What are you doing to yourselves? Why are you killing each other?’”
Bessner responded that other factors “’ more linked to social conditions, socioeconomic conditions, the disbelief that there is anywhere to go in terms of improving your lot in society,'” had to be considered, to which Maher dismissively replied, “You sound like the Mayor-Elect,” referring to Brandon Johnson, the recently elected mayor of Chicago and Chicago Teachers Union activist considered more progressive than the previous mayor, Lori Lightfoot. Maher and Loury would then say more “moral leadership” would help the situation. Bessner disagreed, saying the change would require that Johnson “attack it at the level of socioeconomics, not culture.” Right-wing outlets including Fox News amplified Maher’s Chicago comments – ironic as his opening monologue on the show skewered the network over its $787 million defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.
Maher’s comments were criticized heavily by Ben Burgis of The Daily Beast, who pointed out how Maher’s rise as someone who was antiwar in the 2000s has given way to him devolving into more conservative positions. “But that doesn’t mean he’s ever been a leftist in any deeper sense. If you want to hear old jokes about Sarah Palin reheated and served up as jokes about Marjorie Taylor Greene, watch Bill Maher. If you want to hear well-thought-out analysis of what’s wrong with our society, then — at least on nights when Daniel Bessner isn’t on Bill’s panel — you’re better off changing the channel,” he concluded.
Maher has been no stranger to making racist comments, which include his statement that using the N-word “isn’t racist.”
