‘United Shades’ makes a needed return
Oakland, California-based sociopolitical comedian W. Kamau Bell says his cable TV series, “The United Shades of America,” is a place for “difficult conversations.” So it’s no wonder he believes the program is more vital than ever.
As the Emmy-winning series launched a fifth season on CNN on July 19, protests and debates over racial injustices and defects in American democracy are happening all over a polarized nation. In his role as “United Shades” host, Bell’s mission is to explore communities across the country and get a feel for the challenges they face.
Along the way, he has shown a willingness to step outside his comfort zone — as a Season 1 get-together with members of the Ku Klux Klan proves.
Bell recently took some time to discuss “United Shades,” Donald Trump, bogus statues and the state of race relations:
“United Shades” usually debuts near the end of April. With all the things that are happening, have you been antsy to get back on the air?
CNN is the network you turn to when you need to find out what’s going on — even if you don’t agree with it. I understood that they had to keep rolling with the news. So we were in limbo for a while and that’s OK.
Give us a cursory feel for Season 5. What can we expect?
When our show works well, it feels like we’re kind of predicting the future, even though we pitched the episodes months ago. And that’s what it feels like this season. We have an episode that looks at independent farming — a topic that has been discussed a lot about during the COVID pandemic.
We also examine Black Wall Street and the idea of reparations — topics that gotten a lot of attention in the era of Black Lives Matter. And we have an episode on inequities in the public school system ... I wish these problems would be solved by the time the episodes air, but that doesn’t seem to happen.
As you reflect on what has happened since the death of George Floyd, are you any more hopeful that positive change can occur?
It has been fascinating to see the kind of conversations that are happening in the national media, and among regular white people — not just (San Francisco) Bay Area liberals. The fact that these conversations about systemic racism, police brutality and social injustice are out in the open makes me feel good. But I will only be really hopeful if we see things actually shift in the culture.
I wish it didn’t take the death of George Floyd, and so many others, for people to see how broken the system is. But now that we have seen the problems, we all have to try to do more (to make repairs). We can’t just change our avatars on our Facebook pages.
Considering how awful 2020 has been — with the pandemic, the tragedies, etc. — is it getting more difficult to be funny?
No, not really. Some people may not think I’m funny, but that’s a different matter. ... I’m a comedian and humor is how I process the world. That’s how my brain works. If anything, it’s harder trying to keep up with all the things to be funny about.