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Comedy Tour Urges U.S. to Boycott Bigotry

Two Muslim comedians will launch a national tour in Charlottesville Friday to protest bigotry and promote a boycott. 

As a stand-up comic raised by immigrant parents from Iran, Negin Farsad  often jokes about cultural issues.  She’s a Muslim, but she’s also an American who believes diversity is good and sometimes sexy.

“I was standing in the middle of the dance floor at this bar, and I noticed this dude checking me out, " she told an audience one night.  "I could tell that he was a Jew.  Now how could I tell right?  I mean he wasn’t wearing a yarmuke or spinning a dreidel the way Jews always do, but there was something about him – just a look in his eyes that said, ‘I don’t believe that Jesus Christ was the messiah.”

As it happened, a romance blossomed.

“I asked myself WWARCOAD – what would Arafat and Rabin do circa the 1993 Oslo Accords, and now, every night in the boudoir, I feel like we’re getting that much closer to peace in the Middle East.  I really do.”

Now, Farsad is teaming up with another Muslim comic, talk show host Dean Obeidallah, to protest the bigotry they say President Trump promotes and to launch a boycott against Trump-owned businesses.

“We want people to at least think  before they spend money at his properties, being it a golf course, or a hotel or a winery like in Charlottesville, that you actually are supporting Donald Trump’s bigotry with every dollar you spend," he explains.

They’ll be joined by Jordan Carlos, an African-American comic on Friday, July 20th at The Haven in Charlottesville.  Admission is free, but reservations are encouraged thru their website – boycottingbigotry.com.  

Sandy Hausman is Radio IQ's Charlottesville Bureau Chief