Sikhs on the Daily Show: Wyatt Cenac, read this!
Author: ssingh15 Aug
Screenshots from The Daily Show:
Dear Wyatt,
In the August 10th Episode of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, you did an outstanding report satirizing the uproar about the proposed mosque near the ground zero site. Yes, America is about freedom of religion, and yes, we should promote understanding and respect for all.
In your report, you included shots of Sikh Americans — folks who practice a distinct faith that originated in the 15th century in North India. But you never mentioned they were Sikhs. Your report strongly implied that they were Muslims, which is factually incorrect. Though this is a common error (I’m often mistaken for a Muslim American, but they’re cool too) you should be aware of this, because your media influences millions of people.
The turban is a religiously-mandated article of faith for Sikhs. It’s not the case for Muslims. Which is why 99% of people wearing turbans in the United States are Sikhs — I mean, who’d be crazy enough to wear a turban in America if it weren’t a strict requirement of their faith? 
I’m not making this up, here’s a video produced by the US DOJ on just this topic. Yes that’s right, it’s produced by the United States Department of Justice, and all TSA agents are required to watch it every six months. It basically explains to TSA agents who Sikhs are and how they are different, unique, and shouldn’t be profiled so obviously!
As a Sikh from central New Jersey (went to high school in Lawrenceville) that religiously watches the Daily Show, I just wanted to make you aware of this. I was traveling for work last week and was catching up today, so I saw your report. Again, it’s excellent. I love your work and I will also point out that Jason Jones has correctly characterized Sikhs as a distinct faith on the Daily Show, so I figured I’d write to you directly.
I hope you are well and I’d love to see The Daily Show Live someday! You can read more about Sikhs here at sikhswim.com, or at saldef.org and sikhcoalition.org.
Thanks for reading!
Savraj Singh
EDIT FYI: Mailed this to thedailyshow@comedycentral.com, feel free to write your own and link in comments
9 Responses for "Sikhs on the Daily Show: Wyatt Cenac, read this!"
Sat Sri Akal Satveer,
Yup, I saw that too and found it amusing to say the least, thanks for taking a stand on it.
Like you, I have been a fan of the Daily show for a long time, even saw the show live and had a before show conversation with John Stewart, it was so cool!
Anyways, I have made a forum post with your writeup on the Daily Show forum for Wyatt, I hope he reads it.
It be even better if they actually covered Sikhs in the show, it be great piece to educate the public.
Regards,
Brijdeep
That was part of the joke!!! He was mocking the people angry about the mosque in the fact that a majority of them assume the Sikhs are mulsim based on religious clothing and don’t even take the time to understand or be knowledgeable about the two different religions.
It was part of the joke!!
seconding Linda - it was part of the joke, obviously!
I guess the daily show thinks better of its audience than you do.
I certainly got the joke, and found it hilarious.
Context matters here: they showed random shots of *any* random southeast asian person they saw at the wtc. There can’t be more than a 50-50 chance that any random southeast asian looking person, without any religiously-identifying clothing is muslim.
Here’s another amusing lesson in stereotyping that has to do with sikhs. my mom is an older african american woman. she was chatting with a sikh dude, small talk with her aislemate on a flight. he was trying to make her comfortable, you know, let her know she wasn’t sitting next to a “terrorist”.
but surprise, she knew before he mentioned it that he was sikh from his turban and she knows all sorts of stuff about his religion (she’s a college professor). he nearly fell out of the seat with shock.
the lesson? stereotyping and rushing to judgement about what you think people do or don’t know never quite works like you expect.
oh and also, the daily show has done at least one segment making fun of people who think sikhs are muslims. I’m too busy to look it up in the archives right now, but definitely take a look for it.
TDS isn’t perfect, but confusing sikhs and muslims isn’t part of its mo
More letters of complaint/concern should be written like this: funny, informative, plain spoken, generous and direct. Well played sir. May you rock that turban like the badass you are.
Even if it was part of the joke, it is still worth making the point that not all minorities are alike. Kudos to Mr. Singh for (politely) calling out a favorite media outlet.
I’m afraid to say that you are thinking about this waaaay too hard. I watched the segment and it’s very clear that the use of Sikhs in the video was part of the joke. He even says at the beginning of the segment, “Muslims, or people who look like they may be.” It’s a satire on the way many Americans lump all brown people into one scary race of terrorists.
You have made the error of, for some reason, taking a Daily Show segment seriously.
I hope it was part of the joke. But unlike others here, my first thought was that they made a mistake. If it was part of the joke, I don’t think it was clear enough. Americans confuse Sikhs and Muslims way too much for a viewer to be able to take for granted that an American is being tongue-in-cheek about it.
I’m not so sure it was ‘part of the joke’ as Linda mentions above, since Wyatt didn’t use the line ‘and people that look like they could be Muslim’ until the camera zoomed in on an Indian dude WITHOUT a turban.
So I think Savraj has a point here.
Savraj, I’d be careful about your wording here:
“It basically explains to TSA agents who Sikhs are and how they are different, unique, and shouldn’t be profiled so obviously!”
I’d add ‘and neither should any group [be profiled so obviously]‘, because you don’t want that statement to be misconstrued to sound like it *is* OK to profile the group that Sikhs are mistaken for… when, in reality, any profiling whatsoever should be discouraged!
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