Comedy is often based on quick jabs and rapid-fire remarks. Answering serious questions, however, takes a bit longer.<\/p>\n
An interviewer asked Jerry Seinfeld<\/a> a question: why most of the guests on his Web TV series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee<\/i> were white men.<\/p>\n Seinfeld got pissed off and rushed headlong into deflecting the question. \u201cWho cares? People think [comedy] is the census or something, it\u2019s gotta represent the actual pie chart of American.\u201d<\/p>\n Many media reports followed suit.<\/p>\n \u201cHis job is to make people laugh, not fill quotas.\u201d<\/p>\n He is \u201centitled to prioritize humor over diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n Don\u2019t forget that Seinfeld has lots of black comedian friends<\/p>\n Why don\u2019t non-white men and women of all colors just create their own shows?<\/p>\n The usual reactive fare.<\/p>\n The conversation could have gone another direction. What would have happened if Seinfeld stopped to ask himself why he thought that 21 of the 25 guests chosen to be on his show had been white men?<\/p>\n The depth of my reaction to Seinfeld\u2019s rant, however, wasn\u2019t about him. It was about me.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve spent far too many years reacting and getting offended when someone asks me a challenging question, especially one that I fear casts me in a light that is diametrically opposed to my stated values.<\/p>\n I may feel justified in my defensiveness, but my response doesn\u2019t make any changes in me or in the world around me.<\/p>\n I am done with that. I am working like crazy to take responsibility for myself, to keep up my curiosity and to remember my commitment for a more just and joyful world.<\/p>\n I wanted Seinfeld to do what I didn\u2019t do for so long.<\/p>\n Listen to the question.<\/p>\n Turn inward and try to stay open, without judgment or shame\u2014both of which will stop us in our tracks. See what honest answer emerges.<\/p>\n Sometimes I hadn\u2019t thought about it before. I was still asleep as to how race (or class or gender) influenced my choices.<\/p>\n Sometimes I was behaving in ways that felt comfortable or familiar.<\/p>\n Sometimes prejudice was lurking in the shadows.<\/p>\n Sometimes though my behavior mimicked injustice in the culture around me, in truth, I was acting justly.<\/p>\n Seinfeld could have stopped to understand his authentic answer underneath his bluster. Likewise, the interviewer could have wondered why his BuzzFeed Brews audience was predominantly white men and women, as the angry Seinfeld had pointed out. For me, I want to know my own truth.<\/p>\n We each get to make our own choices, hopefully after reflecting inwardly.<\/p>\n However, it becomes more complex when the perspective widens from the personal to the culture milieu. In fields like comedy, white males have more access to performances, especially lucrative gigs. The same is true for institutional or political appointments. Or philanthropic foundation grants going to pet projects of the (often white male) donors.<\/p>\n We live in a world with unequal access to power and position. For someone who has access, like Seinfeld, to say that he \u201chas no interest in race or anything else\u201d means that he is still unaware, or doesn\u2019t care, how race and gender continue to unjustly influence opportunities available to equally qualified people.<\/p>\n