It’s an Ugly Day in America’s Neighborhood
Let’s Gentrify Donald Trump’s Neighborhood of Make-Believe
I remember the first documentary that totally blew my mind. It features all the qualities of the best documentaries. It is smart, surprising, informative, sublime, beautifully filmed and scored. And just like the best documentaries, it makes your next conversation better, because you have something new and interesting to talk about.
“I just saw this amazing documentary. You must see it.”
Of course, I’m talking about Mister Rogers’ How Crayons Are Made.
Actually, I don't know if that is what it is called. Mister Rogers never gave it a name, so I just call it that because what else would you call it? And if you said “Mister Rogers’ How Crayons Are Made” to anyone of my generation, you could safely bet that they would know exactly what you were talking about. It is perfect. If it hasn’t been procured by the National Archives, then let’s slip it in before Trump hears that there’s a thing called the National Archives. I find a reason to watch this few minutes of joy at least once a year, whether it is showing it to an adult who says, “I REMEMBER THAT! I HAVEN’T SEEN IT IN YEEEEEEEEARS!” or to one of my many kids. Honestly, sometimes I just pull it up to watch for myself. It is glorious.
I grew up at a time when there were only five (usable) stations on your TV. Maybe six if you were lucky and/or spoke Spanish. For most of my childhood those channels were ABC, NBC, CBS, a UHF channel to be named later, and the Public Broadcasting System (PBS if you’re nasty). Those limited choices meant that, as a kid, I spent as much time watching PBS as I did watching any other channel. And in the ‘70s and early ‘80s that meant I was watching Sesame Street (the PBS Newshour for kids), The Electric Company (AKA Morgan Freeman’s debut), 321 Contact (Carl Sagan’s Cosmos for kids), Zoom (The McLaughlin Group for kids), and other assorted interstitials that I have long forgotten. Of course I also visited Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, where I learned about crayons, friendship, the benefits of diversity (or what he called “being a good neighbor”), and so much more.
Also, the theme song to 321 Contact really didn’t need to go that hard.
The last time I watched the crayon-factory doc was late last year when I was invited to host the 2024 Documentary Emmy Awards. When I was putting my opening monologue together, I decided I wanted to show a portion of it to the assembled murderers’ row of nominated documentary filmmakers. In the room that night were Alex Gibney (Going Clear: Scientology and The Prison of Belief, The Inventor: Out For Blood in Silicon Valley), Jason Hehir (The Last Dance), and Barbara Kopple (Shut Up & Sing and Miss Sharon Jones!), among others. My point was that documentaries can be impactful in any shape or size. They don’t always have to be so big and important. And I was banking on the folks in the room getting the nostalgia feels from this piece.
Honestly, I don’t know how successful I was in the room. But by the time I hit the stage, I was already feeling like a success because of something that had happened earlier that day.
When I talked to the Documentary Emmy folks about playing a segment from the crayon factory doc, they told me that they would have to get permission from Fred Rogers Productions, the company that is in charge of Mister Rogers’ estate and intellectual property. I got a little nervous. You never know what is going to happen in those situations. You never know if whoever is in control cares about anything other than making money. You never know if they will have time enough to even read an email about something as small as this. You never know what deals they have made that might prevent them from allowing what you are asking for. Luckily, we were quickly told that we could use footage. And then the day of the ceremony, a few hours before showtime, a couple producers walked into my greenroom and presented me with a care package from Fred Roger Productions. It had pins, stickers, a Mister Rogers Funko Pop, two books, and some other Mister Rogers memorabilia. As gracious as I thought it all was, I was most blown away by the handwritten note.
“Dear Kamau,
‘The greatest gift you ever give is your honest self.’ – Fred Rogers
With appreciation,
Your neighbors at Fred Rogers Productions”
It’s been eight months since I received this gift, and I still can't really believe it. Fred Rogers is an unimpeachable force for good in the universe, to this day and beyond. He is still making people better, through the work he did in his lifetime and through the work Fred Rogers Productions is still doing. My kids all loved the animated spinoff of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. That show is so good they even did an episode during the height of COVID about a pandemic in Daniel’s neighborhood. It helped explain to kids what was going on, and it helped calm their fears. It helped calm mine, too.
Currently my 6-year-old will do nearly anything we ask, if we let her watch the PBS Kids show Wild Kratts. It is a series that actively entertains kids while teaching them about basically every animal in the known universe. What my 6-year-old doesn’t know is that I’d let her watch without her coercing me. It is brilliant. And the theme song is an earworm.
None of this is possible without the P. to the Muthafunkin’ B. to the Muthafunkin’ S.
Mister Rogers’ How To Make Crayons wasn’t the only thing that fostered my love of the documentary form, but it was certainly the gateway. And thanks to PBS, I saw the legendary Black history documentary series Eyes on The Prize, Ken Burn’s masterpieces Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson and Jazz, and all the work of Henry Louis Gates. I also got a lot out of their multiple documentary series, Independent Lens, Frontline, and POV. These series featured docs that I had no idea I wanted to watch until I just happened to turn on PBS and get pulled in. I always walked away smarter, more intellectually curious, and inspired to tell the tales of what I had learned so that others could be smart like me.
And that is why President Trump is pulling federal funding from PBS. He can’t have a smart, curious, and inspired populace and also get away with his infernal bullshit. His agenda is to destroy American democracy and, in the process, loot all of our resources that he covets. But the one American resources he definitely does not covet is knowledge. You can’t possibly value knowledge and push bullshit like changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. You can’t in any way be accused of being an intellectually curious person and just decide to start referring to Canada as the “51st state.” No one would mistake you for someone who’s trying to share the best information available when you still promote 2020 election denialism—an election that you lost—while you say the 2024 election—that you won—was perfect.
Donald Trump’s goal is to make us all collectively less informed and less curious. He even wants us to have less information available to us. And Trump wants all that because then we are collectively easier to con. We are easier to funnel towards our own destruction while we buy his worthless NFT’s and his even more worthless cryptocurrency.
His first goal was to make sure that his acolytes were incurious blowhards. That was the easy part. They say that in order to con someone, the person that you are conning has to want something for nothing. How easy is it for Trump to do this? Check out Exhibit A: this recent tweet from South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.
“I was excited to hear that President Trump is open to the idea of being the next Pope. This would truly be a dark horse candidate, but I would ask the papal conclave and Catholic faithful to keep an open mind about this possibility!
The first Pope-U.S. President combination has many upsides. Watching for white smoke…. Trump MMXXVIII!”
Oh boy! Look, we all know Lindsey Graham is smarter than Trump, and we also all know that Lindsey knows this tweet is…how can I put this in the most charitable way possible?... ABSOLUTE GARBAGE-IO! We all remember when Lindsey vocally and vociferously opposed Trump. It was just one summer Olympics ago. But now Lindsey has given away whatever little bit of credibility he had to please his Dear Leader. I don’t care who the new pope is—regardless of the fact that he is part Black, I will not be taking anything he says seriously—and yet, even I think that tweet is the height of disrespect, the height of sycophantic suck-up-ery and just all around gross. Worst of all, it is literally not possible for Trump to be the pope. At the bare minimum, you have to be a Catholic man. Trump’s been accused of a lot of things—real estate scams, rape and sexual assault, being a bad dad who is attracted to his oldest daughter—but being Catholic is not one of those things.
Trump has also “fixed” what he didn’t do “well” in his last administration. Last time he had too many independent thinkers, too many people with outside ambitions, too many people who knew more than him: Steve Bannon, John Kelly, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Anthony Scaramucci, and my favorite unused Harry Potter villain name—Reince Preibus. But this time Trump has gone with the stoogiest of mob stooges. The kind of people who would leave the cannoli and take the gun. It’s 100% Fredo Corleones in the White House. No Michaels. Not even a Sonny. This crew has confused artificial intelligence with A1 sauce. They’ve fired the only person with keys to the bathrooms of national parks. They have talked about hiring UFC fighters to train FBI agents, which is a little bit like hiring UFC FIGHTERS TO TRAIN FBI AGENTS! You’ve got Pete Hegseth, who couldn’t even get a primetime job at Fox News, Linda McMahon, Mrs. A1 Sauce herself, RFK Jr. who never saw a measles epidemic he didn’t like, Mr. UFC himself, Kash Patel, Karoline Leavitt who has a facial expression of someone who is always preparing to be raptured up to heaven, and TEMU Tony Stark AKA Elon Musk. Elon’s gonna eventually advocate for peeing in your pants in order to save time.
And just when you thought the Trump braintrust couldn’t be less trustworthy, it was recently announced that he hired another Fox News talking mannequin, Jeanine Pirro, who is most known for regularly seeming drunk drunk on her show. Apparently Pete Hegseth missed his old Fox News drinking buddy.
We absolutely can’t stand by while Trump tries to turn us into North Korea West. Have you seen the documentary Beyond Utopia? It is a documentary about a North Korean family attempting to escape North Korea because they are finally waking up to the fact that their government has been lying to them and all North Koreans their entire lives. Lying to them about the state of North Korea, lying about the state of the world outside of North Korea, and even lying to them what a healthy daily diet is. After watching them traverse a terrain that would certainly leave me crying for my savior, the most heartbreaking part is hearing the grandmother still not wanting to believe that her Dear Leader, Kim Jong Un, had lied to her when he had so often claimed that everything he did was for his people. To me, right now, that sounds like a prediction of America’s future.
Trump’s taking funding away from schools, the arts, and now public broadcasting institutions PBS and NPR. He’s regularly attacking public schools, museums, and any news organizations that don’t agree with him often enough. Most notably, he kicked the Associated Press out of the White House Press Pool, because they refused to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. When you think the AP is woke, you have truly lost the plot or never had it in the first place.
Again, we absolutely cannot let this happen. I am trying to do my part for the public schools. I’m currently working on a project to support the arts programs in my area. (Announcement coming soon.) But today, I need you to spread the word about PBS. I’m sharing a message from the people’s librarian Mychal Threets, historian Blair Imani, and influencer Sidney Raz.
What can you do?
1️⃣ Call your representatives!
2️⃣ Visit protectmypublicmedia.org
3️⃣ Support your local station. Shout them out in the comments!
4️⃣ Share how public media like PBS and NPR have improved your life.
We have to be the ones who save us. It’s what Mister Rogers taught us when he fought for PBS in front of the congress before PBS even existed in 1969. Mister Rogers was asking for $20 million to help fund PBS, back when it was just an idea. I dare you to watch this without crying.
Mister Rogers got the $20 million. And because of that, I learned about crayons. It’s our turn to pay him back.
Who’s with me?
P.S. Guess where Beyond Utopia initially aired in America. It was free on PBS Independent Lens. Now you have to pay for it on Hulu. 😬
You’re With Me
Stand-Up Tour Heads to Boston & Connecticut
Next week my Who’s With Me? comedy tour is heading to the Northeast.
May 23rd in Boston at the Wilbur
May 24th in Ridgefield, CT at The Ridgefield Playhouse
Let your people know and get your tickets for any of my tour dates here.
My Congressperson Shouted Me Out in Congress
My representative, Lateefah Simon, who I have known since she was running for BART Board in Oakland, said some incredibly kind words about me on the floor of the house. Representative Simon is no run-of-the-mill politician. She has taken over current Mayor of Oakland Barbara Lee’s seat in the house, and Ms. Simon is perfect for it. She is a firebrand and fierce advocate for her people in the same way Barbara Lee and Shirley Chisholm were in their congressional tenures. I’m guessing she has no plans to be a career congressperson. She absolutely is on a fast track to leadership. Thank you so much, Lateefah. My parents, specifically, couldn’t be more proud.
Behind the Scenes: More Celebrity Jeopardy!
My last Substack newsletter was all about my experience on Celebrity Jeopardy! You all seemed to really enjoy the behind the scenes tales. I’m thinking about doing more of those. Yesterday, I was a guest at a taping of Tiny Desk, and I can’t wait to share the details when it airs next month. Well, the executive producer and showrunner of Jeopardy, Michael Davies, also enjoyed my tales of CJ! (That’s how the cool folks like me refer to Celebrity Jeopardy!) He reposted my whole piece on the official Jeopardy! website. Check it out here.
Also check out Michael’s Substack From The Control Room.
Here’s a piece about the new season of Jeopardy Masters! I had the honor of presenting a category all about me and other famous Bells.
In From The Control Room, Jeopardy! head writers, Billy and Michele, explain how my category came together.
“To start his journey writing a category for W. Kamau Bell, Marcus Brown went to the Los Angeles Public Library to pick up a copy of ‘The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell’. We talked about possibly doing a category about some of his interests, including martial arts, Denzel Washington movies, and stand-up comedy. Marcus mentioned that one of his early stand-up shows was a little like a Before & After Jeopardy! category, ‘The W. Kamau Bell Curve,’ and from there, we all brainstormed some questions with the word Bell in them. In addition to reading WKB’s memoir, Marcus scoured his podcasts and social media posts for a day and was able to find seven or eight clues about bells that somewhat related to his life, sort of 'Slumdog Millionaire’ style.”
Pretty cool… Actually very muthafunkin’ cool!
At Liberty Podcast
Listen to the latest ACLU At Liberty podcast about Trump’s first 100 days in office!
It is less bleak than you might imagine… but still plenty bleak. I’m joined by one of my favorite ACLU’ers, Legal Director of ACLU National Cecilia Wang. Listen here.
Check Out This Excerpt from The Blocks
Host of The Blocks podcast, Neal Brennan, and I go back a long time, but we have never had a conversation more than a few minutes long. We went deep on his podcast. This is a section where we talked about the backlash to my 2022 documentary series We Need to Talk About Cosby. Neal is also known for co-creating Chappelle Show, hence his 👀 when I mentioned Dave Chappelle at the end.
Best thing I've read today. Gives me hope; makes me smile. Many, many thanks 🥰♾️
The crayon episode was my son’s favorite Mr. Rogers episode💜💜💜