During a sit-down interview with Soledad O’Brien, comedian Margaret Cho talked about various issues such as racism and equity, and how her job helps her discuss these issues.
Cho, who is well known for her commentary on social and political issues in her stand-up routines, said racism in comedy is a big way of talking about big issues in a small message, according to WESh.
“To me, it’s a pointed way to talk about racism, and the spectrum of it without making a huge TED talk of it,” Cho said in the Matter of Fact clip.
Cho reminisced about her entry into the field of comedy in 1984.
“With standup comedy, you can really be anybody. When I first started as a comedian, I was the only Asian American woman,” she said.
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Cho said she is a first-generation Korean American and has done impressions of her mom since she was a little kid.
In the Matter of Fact clip, one of Cho’s stand-up routines is shown where she talks about how she told her mom she wanted to be a comedian when she was 14 years old. Then, the comedian does an impression of her mom and responds with, “Oh maybe it’s better if you just died.”
“I think when you’re Asian American you imitate your parent’s voices as a way to distinguish yourself as like, I’m not Asian, I’m Asian American,” she said to Matter of Fact.
In the discussion, Cho discusses her beliefs on White supremacy and the discussion of racism.
“White people talk to Asian people about racism because they’re too scared to talk to Black people and it’s a very pointed way of talking about the hierarchy of racism and how White supremacy lends values to different skin tones,” she said.
Cho’s conversation is part of the fourth and final leg of the Matter of Fact Listening Tour “Trailblazers, Troublemakers & Dreams.”
For more information go to Matter of Fact’s website.
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