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Joking while Muslim in Trump's America
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 15.0px 'Helvetica Light'; color: #aaaaaa; -webkit-text-stroke: #aaaaaa} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} Filmmaker Negin Farsad attends the 2015 Los Angeles Film Festival Filmmaker Retreat at the Parker Palm Springs on June 9, 2015, in Palm Springs, California. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images for Film Independent)
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Negin Farsad is fighting stereotypes one joke at a time. A self-described social justice comedian, Farsad jokes about Islamophobia, race and bigotry – trying to make people laugh and talk about identity.
“People can conceptually hate another group of people…people can conceptually hate Muslims,” she tells DecodeDC podcast host Jimmy Williams. “But when someone is put in front of their face it's hard to hold onto that bigotry.”
Farsad says that the election of Donald Trump has made her work so much harder. She says she has to take on all the same fights, “but now I have to do it with a lead jacket on.”
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