Baratunde Thurston, equal parts comedian and political commentator, filled the Kirner-Johnson Red Pit with his lecture on progressive activism in new media. Thurston’s lecture, organized by the College Democrats and sponsored by Student Assembly and the Office of the President, was as interactive as it was informative, with Thurston joking with audience members and employing the sense of humor that has gained him acclaim.
After an informal and improvised opening conversation with the audience, Thurston explained his history in political satire. He was always predisposed, he said, to be interested in social justice and politics because his grandmother was the first African American employee at the United States Supreme Court. Thurston’s mother was involved in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Thurston inherited his mother’s passion, and he first began seriously thinking about race issues as a student at the prestigious (and predominantly white) Sidwell Friend School, where the Obama daughters are now enrolled.
Thurston launched into a discussion of the Obama administration, and questioned what it means to live in an era that has been classified as “post-racial.” Thurston slipped into a stand-up routine that walked chronologically through the first year of the Obama administration. He joked about the economic crisis and gave his personal opinions on such conservative figureheads as political pundit Glenn Beck and Michael Steele, the first African-American chairman of the Republican National Committee. Thurston presented a few alternate titles to Sarah Palin’s autobiography (Everything I Need to Know I Learned by Looking out the Window).
Thurston also talked and joked about the healthcare debate, poking fun at Scott Brown and Joe Lieberman. He touched on upcoming financial and immigration reform, which he coyly remarked would be “a beautiful thing to watch.”
The “final group project” that Thurston had alluded to throughout his lecture, was an attempt at a world record-breaking collaborative effort between everyone in attendance. Thurston asked the crowd and identified only two attendees who did not self-identify as a liberal. The rest of the crowd, more than 120 students and community members, self-identified as liberals, which was enough people to break the world record for most liberals reading from the list of Republican Party accomplishments enumerated on the website of the Republican National Committee. Thurston showed slides of the accomplishments and recorded with a hand-held camera as everybody in the room laughed and read together the list of 27 accomplishments.
Thurston’s lecture was followed by a question and answer discussion that focused primarily on Thurston’s involvement with The Onion.
After an informal and improvised opening conversation with the audience, Thurston explained his history in political satire. He was always predisposed, he said, to be interested in social justice and politics because his grandmother was the first African American employee at the United States Supreme Court. Thurston’s mother was involved in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Thurston inherited his mother’s passion, and he first began seriously thinking about race issues as a student at the prestigious (and predominantly white) Sidwell Friend School, where the Obama daughters are now enrolled.
Thurston launched into a discussion of the Obama administration, and questioned what it means to live in an era that has been classified as “post-racial.” Thurston slipped into a stand-up routine that walked chronologically through the first year of the Obama administration. He joked about the economic crisis and gave his personal opinions on such conservative figureheads as political pundit Glenn Beck and Michael Steele, the first African-American chairman of the Republican National Committee. Thurston presented a few alternate titles to Sarah Palin’s autobiography (Everything I Need to Know I Learned by Looking out the Window).
Thurston also talked and joked about the healthcare debate, poking fun at Scott Brown and Joe Lieberman. He touched on upcoming financial and immigration reform, which he coyly remarked would be “a beautiful thing to watch.”
The “final group project” that Thurston had alluded to throughout his lecture, was an attempt at a world record-breaking collaborative effort between everyone in attendance. Thurston asked the crowd and identified only two attendees who did not self-identify as a liberal. The rest of the crowd, more than 120 students and community members, self-identified as liberals, which was enough people to break the world record for most liberals reading from the list of Republican Party accomplishments enumerated on the website of the Republican National Committee. Thurston showed slides of the accomplishments and recorded with a hand-held camera as everybody in the room laughed and read together the list of 27 accomplishments.
Thurston’s lecture was followed by a question and answer discussion that focused primarily on Thurston’s involvement with The Onion.
