Today, Not Tomorrow - Hasan Minhaj on Action and Personal Responsibility

In Hasan Minhaj’s 2016 Correspondents’ Dinner speech, he speaks as an incredibly disheartened activist. He speaks as a man who is absolutely fed up with railing and raving against the horrible things happening in front of his very eyes, and seeing absolutely no change coming from it. Again and again, he tells his audience that simply admitting that inequality, fear, and violence exist in our society is not enough. If we want any of these problems to go away, we must all take active measures to combat them. He is desperately trying to convince the audience that it really is in their power to make the changes their country so desperately needs, and that it is their duty to make them. “The same [message] goes for Congress, ” he tells the increasingly uncomfortable crowd, which happens to be largely composed of congressional representatives. “We look to you guys as our leaders. You make almost $200, 000 a year to write rules, to make our society better. Not tweet, not tell us about your thoughts and prayers. To write rules to make our society better” (Minhaj). His use of repetition here and elsewhere in his speech serves to emphasise his point - that our Congress’s predictable neutrality, their focus on job security over real accomplishments, is an active neglect of their duties. It’s a convincing point, and he’s really poured his heart and soul into its delivery. The rest of his speech, up to the beginning of this segment about the importance of political change, has been mostly fun and games. He’s been giving real political commentary, but it has all been from the perspective of a comedian. At this point, however, he’s talking much more slowly and emphatically, pausing more and more so that his words have a chance to sink in. He has transitioned from a friendly, joking voice to one that is much more serious. His words are a lot more direct - he’s talking directly to Congress instead of simply about them. His tone and his careful choice of words make this whole aside feel a lot more personal, like a private moment he is trying to have with his audience. And he doesn’t only talk this way to Congress. He addresses reporters, guests, and the rest of us - the global audience watching his speech from the safety and distance of a screen. And he has a similar message for all of us which is that “. . . the sad reality is that we are all complicit in what happened. Every day in our workplaces, in our homes, in our religious institutions, there is covert or overt discrimination or phobia towards people of different religious, racial or sexual walks of life. And we just sit there and we let it happen, because it doesn't affect our bottom line. ‘Oh, I didn't say it, Hasan. I don't think it's that way. They said it. It's not that simple, Hasan’” (Minhaj). Minhaj is bringing up an important extension to his central point - to enact real change, all of us have to stand up to the inequality we see around us. It is easy, as he points out, to pass these things off as somebody else’s problems. As a whole, societal inequality feels too large and too deeply rooted for one person to address, and one can easily find a host of excuses for any specific instance of discrimination. But inequality is not some single cohesive threat - it is entirely made up out of these excuses that allow us, as a society, to ignore our own hypocrisy. Without taking the time to address every one of these instances of discrimination head-on, we cannot ever hope to fix any societal trends. Minhaj’s use of the first person when talking to his audience is no accident - he is directly addressing every member of the crowd to step up and take personal responsibility. He’s not just talking about these issues in the abstract, but about the concrete, tangible things we can do about them. If we want to revolutionize society, that’s all well and good, but we can’t wait on someone else to step up for us - we’re going to have to start the revolution ourselves. Today, Not Tomorrow - Hasan Minhaj on Action and Personal Responsibility