Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central. Wary Sellers. Welcome to the
Speaker 1: Daily Show. Thank you for having me. I'm glad to
Speaker 1: be here in person. In person, right, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of people I'm meeting now for the first time, and
Speaker 1: I go, like, I've met you. It's like, oh, no,
Speaker 1: I met you much more handsome in person than virtually.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Thank you. You're much taller than
Speaker 1: I thought you were. You could have said handsome, but
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't want to give the compliment back
Speaker 1: to you fair enough, you know what I mean. It
Speaker 1: feels then it feels like I'm recycling. So I was
Speaker 1: trying to think of another thing I noticed about you
Speaker 1: that wasn't looks related. Um, welcome to the show. I'm
Speaker 1: glad to be here. You've You've lived a really interesting life,
Speaker 1: you know, because there was a moment in your career
Speaker 1: where people genuinely thought you were going to be one
Speaker 1: of the next new faces of the Democratic Party in
Speaker 1: this country. You know, you served for I think it
Speaker 1: was eight years in the state legislature and people were
Speaker 1: just like, oh, this guy's going all the way. We
Speaker 1: see what he's doing. You know, he's from a civil
Speaker 1: rights family. He's really in tuneing what's happening. And then
Speaker 1: you were like, no, I'm done with this. What happened?
Speaker 1: I don't know if it was, I'm done with it.
Speaker 1: But I think that having an opportunity right now to
Speaker 1: be a father and be a husband I've realized are
Speaker 1: my two most important jobs, and then being able to
Speaker 1: utilize my platform to lift people up and write books.
Speaker 1: Now this is my second book. It's my second opportunity
Speaker 1: to be on the New York Times bestseller's list. Um,
Speaker 1: There's just so much that I can do. And when
Speaker 1: that opportunity presents itself, Um, you know, when Jim Claiburn retires,
Speaker 1: maybe will I get back in that political scrum? Maybe?
Speaker 1: But I mean, Trevor, would you want to go to
Speaker 1: Congress and serve and have less seniority than Marjorie Taylor
Speaker 1: Green or Matt Gates or Madison Cawthorne, Like, this is
Speaker 1: not an appetizing thing when you think about the American
Speaker 1: political system we have today. So I think I may
Speaker 1: get back out there, but right now, I just want
Speaker 1: to take care of my kids and my wife. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about the book, Who Are Your People? Wonderful title,
Speaker 1: that could be um interpreted is the wrong way, you know,
Speaker 1: because because because in America at least, it's very uncomfortable
Speaker 1: when people say, like, where are you from? Who are
Speaker 1: your people? Can people have used it as you know,
Speaker 1: as you know down South as a colloquial is them
Speaker 1: that when you meet people for the first time, like
Speaker 1: when I met my my daughter's boyfriend s sixteen, you're like,
Speaker 1: who are your people? Because you get to know you
Speaker 1: want to know where their family is from, um, where
Speaker 1: they what type of stock they come from? And so
Speaker 1: who are your people is is just trying to get
Speaker 1: people to understand where you come from. And I wrote
Speaker 1: this book because I wanted personally, I was sick and
Speaker 1: tired of my twins having to see purple people are
Speaker 1: blue people on TV. I wanted them to be able
Speaker 1: to see people that look like them, like the movie
Speaker 1: and Conto for example, and and and in this book,
Speaker 1: they're able to see them and their people and have
Speaker 1: a sense of pride. And I think when young black
Speaker 1: and brown kids read it, they'll get a sense of pride.
Speaker 1: When white kids read it, they'll get a sense of empathy.
Speaker 1: And to your point earlier in the conversation, we live
Speaker 1: in a country where we have an empathy deficit, where
Speaker 1: people no longer care about the struggles and plight of others.
Speaker 1: And maybe this is some utopia that I'm living in
Speaker 1: or youth when I even say, but I firmly believe
Speaker 1: there's more that brings us together than divides us. But
Speaker 1: we have to embrace those differences in the book. You
Speaker 1: you know, when they said, okay, but Car's coming on
Speaker 1: with the book, I was like, okay, right, I love
Speaker 1: his previous pictures for you. And then they were like,
Speaker 1: there's pictures. And I was like, oh, it's a kid's book.
Speaker 1: And then I and then I started reading through it
Speaker 1: and then I was like, wow, it's a kid's book.
Speaker 1: But I mean there's parts of the book where you know,
Speaker 1: black people are sitting at like the lunch counter and
Speaker 1: they're just getting shout to that in the science that
Speaker 1: say no negroes. Except I was like, wow, this is
Speaker 1: one hell of a children's book. And then I started thinking.
Speaker 1: I was like two things. One, I was like, you
Speaker 1: know some people who won't be like, oh, man, is
Speaker 1: this what you want to teach kids? And the other
Speaker 1: people might go, h you know, this book is gonna
Speaker 1: get banned in a bunch of places soon. Right. Well,
Speaker 1: that image that you're talking about is is one of
Speaker 1: my two favorite images. It's it's actually a real image
Speaker 1: from February one, nineteen sixty at the World Worce lunch counter,
Speaker 1: where students from North Carolina anti state universities kicked off
Speaker 1: the sit in movement. And I wanted to have that
Speaker 1: history and that those lessons in the book, and maybe
Speaker 1: if you're an adult reading it, it refreshes your memory,
Speaker 1: you can teach more about it. But yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: people are they're banning Michelle Obama's books in Texas right now.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, people are talking about this book,
Speaker 1: a picture book being critical race theory. It's absolutely not
Speaker 1: to coreace theory, but it is getting caught up in
Speaker 1: all of this this utter anti intellectual bs is the
Speaker 1: best way that I can phrase it. Because what's wrong
Speaker 1: with kids learning about who they are? What's wrong with
Speaker 1: kids learning about where other kids came from and being
Speaker 1: proud of that. I don't see anything wrong and it
Speaker 1: and hopefully it teaches a new generation to dream. It
Speaker 1: feels like it comes out at a at a perfect
Speaker 1: time as well, not just because of what's happening in
Speaker 1: the conversation around books. But because of Black History Months,
Speaker 1: you know, Black History Month is is one of the
Speaker 1: most interesting times to observe, especially when you come from
Speaker 1: outside of America, you know, because where I'm from, it's
Speaker 1: always Black History Month. You know, I want to come there.
Speaker 1: You're welcome. Welcome. Every day's Black History Month used to be.
Speaker 1: It needs to be your your slogan. You need to
Speaker 1: work on that. And it really is an interesting interesting
Speaker 1: thing to understand as somebody who has worked with some
Speaker 1: of the most devastated families in this country, as they've
Speaker 1: dealt with civil rights abuses, as they've dealt with hate crimes.
Speaker 1: You know, what do you think Black History should be about?
Speaker 1: I think we need to understand when Carter G. Woodson
Speaker 1: found it Negro History Week and Shows February. He did
Speaker 1: it because of the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass,
Speaker 1: two of his heroes at the time. And that's how
Speaker 1: we ended up in Black in February for Black History,
Speaker 1: Negro History Week, and Black History Month. For me, it's
Speaker 1: about the richness of a culture, the perseverance and overcoming
Speaker 1: you're talking about slavery, and oppression four hundred years Jim Crow.
Speaker 1: My father literally went to segregated schools. My mother was
Speaker 1: a part of the herd desegregating class in high school.
Speaker 1: This isn't generations ago. We're talking about pain, but we're
Speaker 1: also talking about the triumph of overcoming and so there's
Speaker 1: a lot to be proud of. But if people don't
Speaker 1: recognize that pain, then they can never understand the struggle
Speaker 1: of what it is to be black in America. There
Speaker 1: seems to be um a paradox for some people in
Speaker 1: understanding the the duality of being black. You know, like
Speaker 1: some people think black people can only exist in the
Speaker 1: state of pain and suffering. Those people just, oh, I'm
Speaker 1: so sorry that you're black. It must be so hard
Speaker 1: all the time. And then there are some people who
Speaker 1: exist almost in a state of being like, oh, get over,
Speaker 1: nothing happened. And I always trying to experence people. I go, like, no,
Speaker 1: it's about understanding all of them, the who, the whole person,
Speaker 1: and and like, you know that, I think the most
Speaker 1: perverse phrase we have in politics right now. And I
Speaker 1: hate when people teach young people to be color blind.
Speaker 1: I don't want you to be color blind. I mean,
Speaker 1: I want you to be able to see the richness
Speaker 1: of my culture, everything I bring. I want you to
Speaker 1: see the fact that, yes, I've cried tears when Trayvon
Speaker 1: Martin was killed, or or when George Floyd was murdered,
Speaker 1: but I've also recognized that we have a great history
Speaker 1: of overcoming in this country. And a lot of people
Speaker 1: disagree me, disagree with me on this premise, but I
Speaker 1: fundamentally don't think there's anything irredeemable about this country. I
Speaker 1: fundamentally believe we have to reimagine what she looks like
Speaker 1: to being more inclusive America than includes all of us.
Speaker 1: But what's interesting is how many times black people fought
Speaker 1: for their progress in the treat because of the rules
Speaker 1: that it had written for nothing that you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, It's it's an interesting paradox. It's a bounced check.
Speaker 1: And I think King said it best. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: a someone wrote down a promise to give people this
Speaker 1: and then it bounced. They knew it was insufficient funds,
Speaker 1: and so here we are, we're trying to we're trying
Speaker 1: to reclaim what you promised us in that check. And
Speaker 1: so what you're saying is you're hopeful. You believe that
Speaker 1: there's a chance that America could be able to pay
Speaker 1: the amount on that check. I believe so. I believe
Speaker 1: America right now is an unfulfilled, broken promise to so
Speaker 1: many people, whether or not your Muslim, immigrants, gay black
Speaker 1: woman in this country. It's a It is a bounced
Speaker 1: check and an unfulfilled promise. However, I still have faith
Speaker 1: in tomorrow. Wow, look at that. I can run for
Speaker 1: office with that. You should, man, I still have faith intomorrow.
Speaker 1: But car Sellers, I stillft faith in tomorrow. South Africa,
Speaker 1: every day is black history. You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: I love if this. We're running campaigns right here, marketing
Speaker 1: you let me know when you're going back into politics,
Speaker 1: and I will be right behind. And you're not following you,
Speaker 1: but just cheering you. Appreciate you. Who are your People?
Speaker 1: Is available wherever books are sold. What's the Daily Show
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