Comedian Amber Ruffin was literally cancelled from hosting the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner recently after the president’s team caught wind of the fact that she might be mean to the Trembling Tyrant rather than participate in toothless both-sidesing. “If I make this equal, then I’m also a piece of shit,” Ruffin thought after news broke that the administration was “disappearing people to a prison in El Salvador.”
Most of us are well aware at this point that the Trump administration treats facts like a clogged toilet at Mar-a-Lago—overflowing, unavoidable, but too disgusting for anyone involved to deal with. Call me old-fashioned—a hysterical woman or whatever—but I always thought truth was based on facts and that “real” men were hardy enough to brush off some light-hearted comedic roasting. Truth is supposedly “out there” and, if my memory of undergrad Intro to Philosophy is correct, that truth is based on empirical evidence.
But I guess my old philosophy prof and Francis Bacon were wrong, since it appears that if there’s one thing that politicians, journalists, and now comedians should both-sides, it’s facts. In our current world, truth is merely an illusion. Science has become the enemy; history is being rewritten by conspiracy theorists with GEDs in Facebook memes; and basic reality is so unwelcome and unfamiliar it has to show ID at the door. If a fact dares to contradict the Orange Overlord’s fragile ego, it’s thrown out faster than a Black family trying to rent an apartment in a Trump building. I guess that’s why Ms. Ruffin too had to go.
The Trump administration’s relationship with facts is as distant as its commitment to diversity. DEI has become the ultimate boogeyman for a party built on pretending that privilege doesn’t exist. In the fevered MAGA imagination it can even cause an airplane crash. The moment someone whispers ‘equity,’ Republicans start hyperventilating like they’re being asked to read a Toni Morrison book. To them, inclusion isn’t just a threat, it is the existential crisis; because what’s more terrifying to a party of B-list fascists than the idea that government jobs might go to people based on talent instead of legacy handshakes at country clubs?
Clutching their pearls so hard they could probably produce diamonds, they scream about ‘wokeism’ while happily propping up the most ignorant, corrupt, and staggeringly unqualified leaders imaginable. And leading the charge is a spray-tanned failure (whether it was real estate, steak, vodka, or a travel website) who’s declared bankruptcy six times—and was still somehow allowed to bankrupt the country’s grasp on reality. Who needs inclusion when you can have exclusion with such tremendous efficiency?
Now that DEI is cancelled there seems to be no need for people like Amber Ruffin who check off a whole lot of diversity boxes. There’s no need to state facts or question what that correspondents’ dinner is even about. And, speaking of, what is that dinner about—besides being expensive and providing an opportunity for journalists who want to hobnob with feckless politicians and pretend they have integrity?
It’s not for me to say what sort of jokes Ruffin had up her sleeve. She seems well-versed in US political discourse, but that room full of journalists hardly seems prepared for the truths that should be shared anyway. To date, according to the Gaza Government Media Office, 212 Palestinian journalists have been murdered in the last 18 months—how many news outlets or correspondents in the US have mentioned this?
It should shock any room full of correspondents to hear that so many of their colleagues have been targeted and murdered for reporting facts on the ground of a live-streamed genocide. But, of course that wouldn’t be mentioned, I presume, and all this hoopla around Ruffin is merely about the fact that some overly spray-tanned, reality-show-grifter is running the US (into the ground) and is still in recovery from soft quips Barack Obama landed some 14 years ago.
Let me be real for a moment. If there was one thing Trump and his drooling band of Cream Cheese Confederate Cosplayers fear more than truth, it’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The idea of a government that reflects the best of America—its wealth in diversity—makes those morally bankrupt politicians seize up in terror. The entire concept of DEI is a national threat to the US, as are the perceived dangers of Black and Brown people, Arabs, trans people, China, Canadian bacon, all of Africa, Yemen, Iran, Communism, Marxism, Paddystinians, Islam, truth, learning, and Kinder Eggs.
In the world of the Trump administration, hiring based on talent instead of whiteness is actually oppression; learning truth like US Black History in schools is ‘indoctrination’; and ‘woke’ means anything that makes a Republican feel vaguely uncomfortable, such as accountability or seasoning in food. Meanwhile, a Cheeseburger Swamp-Demon with the impulse control of a toddler on meth, shrieks about tariffing islands inhabited by penguins.
Look, you know me: a supposed “woke viper of the academy,” a “nobody” who should “stick to writing about Wakandian Studies” as an “8th-rate scholar.” I’m the first to “cry racism” here on Religion Dispatches. But this time, Ruffin’s cancellation seems to be about something else. It’s not about simply being a queer Black woman in a public arena criticizing a ghoulish and greedy wannabe dictator. It’s more than that. It’s about being a mean Black woman in a public arena criticizing a ghoulish and greedy wannabe dictator.
And on top of that, this Black woman was given an opportunity to take no prisoners and speak truth to power. Sure, she’s a well-known comedian who was given the green light and booked months ago by the WHCA (which then turned around last month in a bid to pretend that US democracy is real, and voted unanimously to cancel her appearance). For all we know, Trump may have thought that Ruffin was Kamala Harris because all us Black ladies look the same to some folks.
Commenting on the decision, WHCA president Eugene Daniels explained that he wanted to “ensure the focus is not on the politics of division but entirely on awarding our colleagues for their outstanding work.” And if we know one thing about US politics it’s that they thrive on unifying the country and not sowing division. Which is why it was perfectly on-brand for Ruffin’s figurative green card to be revoked. I’m not making light of people being disappeared by plain-clothes, mask-wearing ICE agents for criticizing the administration or for opposing genocide, and thankfully Ruffin seems to have gotten off lightly by just having her appearance cancelled rather than being “accidentally” sent to a prison in El Salvador. Phew. Dodged a bullet there.
To be honest with you, some may think the opportunity to roast Trump in person over a pricey dinner is worth anyone’s time, but the entire pageantry should be thrown out. Too many big corporations are used as mouthpieces for US imperialism, and mainstream news has been weaponized to promote a reverse-Robin Hood who steals from the poor to benefit the rich. If we are going to make some sort of change, people have got to start saying no to people like Trump, his team, and politicians from all political parties who’ve abandoned working-class people.
It might have felt good for Ruffin to throw a few sharp jabs at the president and placate liberals for an evening (if that was the plan), but what does that serve in the end when people are struggling to make ends meet, watching their 401Ks go up in flames, and witnessing the US become a global pariah? Even participating in something like the White House Correspondents’ Dinner to begin with is participating in both-sidesism.
In a time when fascism wears a smile and misquotes the dictionary, telling the truth is revolutionary—and frankly, it’s the least we can do before history adds us to its long list of punchlines. Truth doesn’t need a pompous dinner, a uniform, or a chant. That’s fascism’s thing. Fascism lies loud. Truth just wins. So, say no to fascism. It’s the laziest plot twist in history. Truth hits harder than a boot. Use it.
