Bill Maher has gotten very comfortable revealing his recklessness in "Real Time". Over the weekend Bill Maher made the joke that he was a "house nigger" in an interview with senator with Senator Ben Sasse take a look – 

Let's discuss this. While I feel the argument about why we as a community get the permissible right to use the N-word vs. the white community takes us down a lane of intellectual indecency, this is a perfect time to remind ourselves why this word is so loaded. Bill Maher has leveraged himself as a liberal provocateur who has free range to weigh in on any topic without a filter. It is widely known that Bill Maher has dated quite a few black women but, the problem, is somehow this seems to have enhanced his sense of white privilege when speaking on Black circumstances.

You can see how the Senator maintained an uncomfortable smile when the punchline dropped and the audience felt stuck between confusion and laughter – just to decide on an applause when Bill wrote it off as a joke. We all understand what the n-word invokes in us when we see it roll off the lips of a white figure, but the issue is we seem to only understand the historical context when it is used by those who savagely project it upon us. The age old argument that it is our word because it is our history and we have reclaimed it proves to be flawed in this circumstance. As James Baldwin so eloquently said, "I did not invent the word n*gga the white man invented it. What you believe it to be, I am not." 

Bill Maher is a symbol of what it looks like to be able to freely dehumanize historical context and have no relevance to struggle while thinking you understand. Not to mention, his black woman fetish plays out as a cloak of unification with the black community, but ironically Bill has never crossed these lines in the face of Black commentators who often visit his show. Is it safe to assume he knows when jokes of this caliber will play over best? Maybe.

With the growing outrage people are beginning to demand his job be taken, such as activist DeRay McKesson:

We can debate over whether or not Bill Maher should be fired for days to come, but regardless of where your perspective falls when someone elicits jagged emotions based on offensive statements they are only as powerful as we allow them to be. Power lies in wherever we place value. Bill Maher's career has been built on being a disruptive personality that makes uncomfortable statements about everything from religion to Islam. Is this an issue of political correctness, and should there be a barrier around comedic speech? Is firing Bill Maher the answer? Potentially, it might be more advantageous to have Bill Maher come on a Black show and discuss his position on this topic against a Black audience and host. That would better prove his ability to stand in the face of those he jokes about and have the same level of indiscretion. What do you think? 

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