Yvette Nicole Brown was on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where she expressed absolutely no patience for President Trump’s use of civil rights icons as props during his visit to the National Museum of African-American History.
Brown, like many others, didn’t buy the act as anything other than poor PR. The audacity, she says, of presenting himself as anything other than a man who’s consistently displayed racism and supported racist policy is both insulting and embarrassing. Here’s just a few of her tweets, including the one that Colbert brings up.
Wait, after every hateful thing he’s said about black folks, he had the NERVE to set foot inside NAAM?! #IHopeMyAncestorsAreStirredAndRiseUp
— yvette nicole brown (@YNB) February 21, 2017
What you not gon do is use my people as a backdrop for your continued foolishness. Saying their names like it’s the 1st time EVER. #ThisDude
— yvette nicole brown (@YNB) February 21, 2017
The National Museum of African-American History is a sacred place for us. It honors our contribution to this nation.
— yvette nicole brown (@YNB) February 21, 2017
He will not use that important place to attempt to soften the accurate image we have of him as a racist who disregards black & brown issues.
— yvette nicole brown (@YNB) February 21, 2017
Trump (in his car): Did it work? Do they like me now?
Black folks: Nope and Nope.#WeSeeYou
We, the melanin-rich #StayWoke— yvette nicole brown (@YNB) February 21, 2017
When Colbert asks whether attending was better than not attending, Brown asserts that it is not, and it’s more offensive to use that space and the images of civil rights figures as a backdrop for his own means:
Everything is not better because you take a picture in front of Martin Luther King. I need everyone to understand that, this is not a game. I don’t like my people, especially ones that have done great things for civil rights, to be used as props. If you’re going to do a press, a photo-op, I need you in front of slavery or something really gritty so when they ask you a question you are standing in front of someone in chains, and you are really honest about all the horrible things you have said about black and brown people, and do it in front of somebody in chains.
It’s not unlike the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect’s “too little, too late” statement that refuses to see the President’s “pathetic asterisk of condescension” as a genuine or sufficient denunciation of Antisemitism.
In the rest of the interview, the two talk about their shared cause, Donors Choose, which is a wonderful way to support schools. It’s as important as ever so take a look if you want to show some support! Brown also talks about how she only uses her image for PG roles, since she doesn’t want to confuse the younglings who see her on shows like Drake and Josh. She is, however, excited about a voice role on the very-much-not-PG Supermansion which she’s on with Bryan Cranston.
As one of the babies that first knew Brown as Helen on Drake and Josh, it’s amazing to now know her as a vocal activist and critic of Trump. What did you think about the segment?
(Image via screencap)
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