Trevor Noah gets real about racism in America

Trevor Noah has encountered racial discrimination in America.

By ZAlebs | 22.06.2020 | Trevor Noah | Top of The Last Updated On 30.01.2026

Trevor Noah gets real about racism in America

Trevor Noah The Daily Show host Playboy

Speaking to Playboy magazine, South
African comedian Trevor Noah
touched on his own experiences of racial discrimination in the US.

“It’s often very small things, but they
pile up. Cabdrivers don’t pick you up. It happens to me. Or you go into a
corner store and get followed, or people say things about you. It’s often not
blatant, but it’s entrenched in the system,” he told the magazine

When asked about why he thinks having a
black president has done little to ease race tensions in the US, Trevor had
this to say.

“This is hard to explain to white people,
but the thing about race is that you can’t turn it off. If you’re black, you
are constantly black and that blackness is always affecting you in some way or
another. That’s a tough conversation to have…”

Life in America is great, though, and
Trevor says his first impression of the country was all the choices its
citizens have at their disposal.

READ: Trevor Noah’s US girlfriend joins him in SA?

Going to Walmart was quite an experience
for the comedian.

“That place absolutely blew my mind. I had
never seen anything like it. Seventeen different types of milk. Twenty-two
kinds of laundry soap. It is a land of unimaginable abundance, though it wasn’t
a complete surprise.”

Being host of The Daily Show comes with its perks, but being famous, Trevor says, does not come cheap.

“The biggest thing I have learned in
America is that it is expensive to be famous here. You have to pay for things.
You have to pay for bodyguards. You have to pay for a driver. You have to pay
for a publicist. You have to pay for a stylist. I never used to understand the
stress around those things. I never experienced that, and I still try to not
experience it.“

Trevor is currently dating US model Jordyn
Taylor, but admitted to having a fanboy crush on two famous celebrities.

“Charlize Theron. Not just because she’s
South African. I think she is aging majestically. She’s so beautiful. Jennifer
Lopez as well. Does she even have an age?”

READ: Mzansi Magic probes Ring of Lies racism
Written by Editorial Team

The ZAlebs editorial team brings you the latest in South African celebrity news, entertainment, music and lifestyle. We cover the stories Mzansi is talking about with speed, accuracy and a finger firmly on the pulse of local pop culture.

Published on 22.06.2020
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