In case you somehow managed to miss it, Larry Wilmore has been on a bit of a winning streak lately. Though still less than a year into his duties as Nightly Showmastermind, Wilmore has managed to cultivate a unique and often HBO-rivaling (Hi, John Oliver!) level of joyfully unfettered political commentary. To continue riding the wave of this creative stride, Wilmore used Tuesday's show to take some much-needed aim at the less-than-stellar state of Alabama.
True Nightly Show heads will recall that Wilmore dubbed Alabama a "non-cray" state earlier this year when Republican Governor Robert Bentley ordered the removal of the Confederate flag from state buildings. However, that status has been swiftly abandoned in the wake of Alabama's latest racially charged folly. Citing so-called "budget cuts," Alabama is closing a reported 31 DMV offices while simultaneously requiring that all voters have a driver’s license or state-issued photo ID to vote. As you might have guessed, the 31 impacted offices are mostly located in black and minority communities.
"What the fuck?" Wilmore asked the state perhaps best known for its cameo in Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno. "Seriously, Alabama? Look, I know I shouldn’t expect much from a state whose flag is the bars without the stars, but I hoped it was just the stars that were racist. Maybe the bars really did believe in states’ rights." Wilmore also decided a handy racism measuring device might ease non-Alabama viewers' confusion as to the existence of such behavior in the year 2015, behavior best summarized by Wilmore himself: "Alabama is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act by making it harder for black people to vote."
