Couch somewhere in the world, this is the daily social distancing show, with trevor noah. Trevor Trevor the big story thats had everybody talking, from social media to the morning news, has been Bubba Wallace, nascar, and the noose. Now, if you missed the story, heres how it all went down Bubba Wallace, the only black nascar driver, has been promoting the black lives Matter Movement and pushing nascar to ban the Confederate Flag from its races. Nascar agreed, and Bubba Wallace immediately faced a huge firestorm from people who felt like he was blocking their Southern Heritage and racism. Then, a week after the flag was banned from the races, one of wallaces crew members found a noose hanging in the garage where wallaces car was parked. And so, immediately, everybody was on edge, especially black people. I mean, its a noose. A noose is like the n word of ropes. In fact, i dont even like to say the word moose because its too close to noose. I just call it a canadian cow. So, anyway, after the noose was found, nascar called in the f. B. I. To investigate if this was, indeed, a hate crime, and last night, the f. B. I. Announced their findings. The f. B. I. Has determined that nascar driver Bubba Wallace was not the target of a hate crime. Investigators say the noose found in his garage had been there since last october, months before wallace was assigned that stall. According to nascar, the rope was used to pull the garage door closed. Wallace, the sports only black topcircuit driver says he doesnt care how long its been there, its still a noose. Trevor what an emotional rollercoaster. It turns out, there was a noose in the garage, but it wasnt left there as a message to Bubba Wallace. It was used to close a garage door. And im going to be honest with you, i am just relieved. Im relieved, because for a story involving a noose, this is the best possible outcome. It wasnt a hate crime against Bubba Wallace, and it wasnt a hoax, like jussie smollett, because the country didnt need any of that right now. I mean, weve already got Police Brutality videos going viral every day, protests in the streets. And on top of all of that, theres a pandemic that you think has gone away, and then it comes back with a vengeance like a virus john wick. Now, i know theres someone whos probably just as relieved as i am, and thats my good friend roy wood jr. What up, roy . Whats up, man, whats going on . Trevor for once the f. B. I. Delivered some good news. Good news. You must have lost your goddamn mind. There aint no good news involving a noose. Trevor i dont mean good like santa claus is in town. I mean relatively good news. From where the story started this is relatively good news. A noose is never good news. Thats like finding a turd in the kitchen. You dont care why its there or who put the turd there. No, theres a turd in your kitchen, and you aint happy about it, and you want that shit gone. Trevor but, roy, apparently theres an isnt explanation for this. They say the rope was used to close the garage door. They tied the end of it like a noose. And that dont freak you out. First off, who is using a noose to close a garage door. Thats like building a campfire but you shape your campfire in the form of a cross pup cant think of a less racist way to roast marshmallows. And why that knot . Of all the not. I got a slipnot, a clove hitch, or a taughtline hitch, but they chose a noose. Trevor wow, roy, you know a lot about knots. I was in the boy scouts, dishonorably discharged for eating all the fundraiser pop corng but thats another story. Trevor i hear what youre saying. I hear what youre saying. Its pretty messed up to use a noose as the pull for your garage. And, and, and its backwards as hell. Youre telling me they still close garages by hand. Nascar makes billions of dollars. Youre telling me they cant afford no damn clicker. You can purchase and install a garage door opener for 300. My uncle derek could knock it off for 150. Hes over in memphis. Just hit him up. Thats how you know, trevor, nascar doesnt have enough black people in their sport. You just got a noose dangling and nobody nobody saw it. Hey, man, grab the murder rope and shut this garage real quick. Nobody . Nobody seen nothing . Trevor im not going to lie, roy. You make some really good point. So then how do you respond to people who are saying that black people are just being too sensitive . Yeah you kind of need to be sensitive when youve had a target on your back for last 400 years. Thats why i keep my head on a swivel at all times. I cant afford to let my guard down. Little kids come up on my porch for halloween. Yeah, they might be kids dressed as ghosts or they could be really short members of the k. K. K. I aint giving no snickers bar to the klan. Get your ass off my porch. Trevor all right, roy, so then, like, what do you say . Why do we go from here . First off, trevor, Everybody Needs to learn how to tie a different knot. Google that shit. Go fig that you are out. Secondly, nascar needs to give all their garages the noose check onceover before ever race. We wouldnt want any more misunderstandings. Trevor hey, man, speak something truth there, roy wood jr. Thank you so much for checking in, my dude. I hope you dont find any turdz in your kitchen. I dont know what that meant. You aint never found a turd whatever, man. Trevor were going to take short break, but after the break, were speaking to Bubba Wallace himself to find out what he thinks about the story. Dont go away. vo parents have a way of imagining the worst. Especially when your easily distracted teenager has the car. At subaru, were taking on distracted driving. With sensors that alert you when your eyes are off the road. The subaru forester. The safest forester ever. Gatorade has carbs to fuel and electrolytes to help replenish. So, you can count on the proven formula. Been there, done that. Twice your cousin. From boston. Karen, im just gonna say what everyone here is thinking. You look smokin. Total smokeshow. And they never did find his finger. They had to close the pool for like an hour. I brought a date. Names sam. Dig in. Love is like boston lager. Rich, complex and its over too soon. Right, chrissy . Oh my god. Oh my god. Well then chill your reeses, dessyoull eat it slower. Ast . I wouldnt know i swallow mine whole like a duck. Not sorry. Reeses. Daily social distancing show. My first guest tonight is nascar driver Bubba Wallace. We talked about the noose incident and about nascars reckoning with racism. Check it out. Bubba wallace, welcome to the daily social distance show. Thank you, sir. How are you . Trevor im doing as good as i can do during this period. The bigger question is how are you . I mean, you must be feeling a range of emotions right now, you know, to have the f. B. I. Involved, you know, in looking into why there was a noose that was found in the garage where your car is going to be parked. You know, you were told this by nascar. This blew up into a giant thing, and the f. B. I. Comes out saying, it is a noose, but we dont think anybody left it there for bubba. How are you doing right now . You nailed every emotion on the head there, going through all of that stuff being being kind of sitting on the phone, really the last couple of weeks. I still dont know how my battery is has enough juice in it to keep going. On my phone and mentally and physically, i just mentally drained, physically drained. But all in all, its okay. Its just part of the process, you know. You learnue learn new things each and every day. Youre tested, sometimes in a positive way, sometimes in a negative light. And youre always learning from each and every day, you know. So im okay. Trevor when we deal with celebrities, or people in the spotlight, whether its politicians or athletes or, you know, musicians whoever it is we forget that loose a human being involved in the story as well. Talk me through what that felt like when nascar comes to you and says theres a noose. I think a lot of people may not understand the world youre in and what the journey has been since you came out and said we need to get rid of the Confederate Flag. Yeah, ever since then, i knew it would be a whirlwind of emotions, of comments of hate, of positive light as well. And ever since the removal of the Confederate Flag, and ever since being vocal in, you know, of being a human being. Its not about being vocal. Its about being a human being, like you said. Ive been proud to kind of i dont really know how to word it. Like i said, im still learning. But to step away from Bubba Wallace the athlete and to step up as Bubba Wallace the human for the first time and not be so. I dont know if i can touch that, i dont know if i can say these types of things. Trevor right, right. Im letting that guard down. And i do it with the utmost respect of all of my partners, my sponsors, my race team, people that are supporting me. They with me doing, this they have to know the Bigger Picture of everything. Its not about racing. Its about race. So ever since having that voice and being vocal about it, coming out and standing my ground, helping nascar paint a new picture for the sport and for the next generation to see and latch on to, getting rid of the Confederate Flag, i knew, all right, here we go. Roll the sleeves up. Its about to be tough. Trevor right, right. And, you know, talladega was on our list of fans are going to be back, Confederate Flag is gone, heightened awareness around talladega. After the race was called, obviously, weather came through, delayed the whole day, i get a phone call from steve phelpsystem, president , and it was a phone call look a pissed off parents you did something bad. Weve all had those phone calls. Those are the ones that stick in your head. And it was much worse than that. He said, i need to talk to you in person. He came in and walked in my bus and he could barely speak and he had tears flowing and i knew at that moment it was really bad, still thinking i did something. And he said, there was a hate crime committed. So i immediately thought of my family and got worried, you know, stomach kind of dropped dropped. Because i was fine, but i hadnt been in contact with my family for a little bit. And he told me that there was a noose found in my garage. And i was i was relieved that it wasnt family, but i was emotional just because its, like, man someone could go out of their way to portray an image of hate, a symbol of hate. And so i was going through that. I walked back over to ryan bennys bus just in tears and we hugged it out, told him the incident there. And i actually did not go get food. I stayed in my bus all night and was trying to get a clear head and had a ton of outreach, once we put our statements out there of everything i was going through, what had happened. So we get through the race, and we all, obviously, have that awesome display of love, compassion, understanding unity there before the race, all the drivers come together. The whole industry came together, surrounded by car. Trevor what do you think of significance of that moment was of having all of the drivers push your car out to the front, all of the drivers go like, no, we stand with bubba, because they know how tumultuous it means. You cried, and i think a lot of people felt that moment. Why did you think that was such an important image for people to see . No, yeah, that was powerful right there. From the moment evidence being pushed down pit lane there, i was balling, gathered nigh thoughts, got out, turned around and seen all the drivers there. Started bahing again. And took a selfie there and just i wanted to capture that moment because that will be one that will stick with me for forever. It shows that we can let down that side and be human beings, like we talked about earlier, and show love and compassion for our fellow competitors, our brothers and our sisters, to to come together as one. So that was an incredible moment. So it was definitely it was definitely tough to comprehend all that and then climb in and go race. Trevor tell me, were you relieved when the f. B. I. Came out with their report . Because this happened to Bubba Wallace. I mean, you were the story. How did you feel about this . Like, were you relieved . What was your emotion . When i first heard about ttrevor, i wanted to make sure that this wasnt going to be the case because i knew the backlash that would come with it. Trevor uhhuh, uhhuh. I questioned my crew chief. I questioned my crew member who was African American and who found it and was outraged about it. I talked to him multiple times. He checked the garages around us and nobody had a knot like we had on our garage pull in the shape of a noose, a full blatant noose. Trevor this is not like a regular this is not like a nascar style of tying a knot. Its not like it was in all the other garages. No, this was this was there. It could have been there in 2019, which is thats great. It wasnt directed toward me. To answer your question, i was relieved. But i knew that this was going to flip to the negative side and all of that side of everything was just going to come flowing out because people would say its a hoax, compared me to jussie smollett, like, i mean, just outrageous stuff. But we checked my my crew member, david kroft, checked each and every garage around us. Not one of them had anything close to resemble what we had. So it was there, but it had been there. So when they found that evidence, that was good. That was like, okay, my family wasnt targeted. I wasnt targeted. Okay. But now, theres a whole new realm that we have to deal with. Trevor i know there are a lot of fans you know, i try and read what people are saying and just try to get a sentiment. And i know there are some people a lot of people support, id say even most. But there were some fans who said, bubba, i supported you. I never made it a blackwhite thing. Why did you have to bring these things into politics . Im not a political person at all. I walk straight and narrow down the path i want to walk on. And, you know, its crazy when everybodys all supportive when the president is at the daytona 500, and its all fine. Thats all political to me, you know. But when i bring in banning the Confederate Flag and standing up for my African American side of my family, who feel leak they dont have a voice, and im carrying that weight. Im carrying that flag for them. And so, you know, my tweet is not something i am going around saying, im the African American driver. Yup, im African American. Im the black guy. Its simply saying, youre going to hear about that from media, from other fans. Thats how im going to be labeled. Ive accepted it. You accept it. You embrace it and enjoy the journey. Its as simple as that. I never once pulled the race cart as many have accused me. Im looked at as an African American guy because of the color of my skin. Im not dark, im not white. Im mixed. Its something i never once tried to bring in. I always tried to bring in the competitive nature. Dont mess wewme. I wont mess with you. Lets race our hearts out. Thats it. And now, having a voice, having a platform, being vocal, standing up for what i believe is right, standing up for a race that feels defeated, that is afraid to speak out because they dont know whats going to happen. Im not i dont want to see my people go down like that. I want to stand up for them. I want to stand up with them arm in arm, hand in hand, to show, hey, i have a voice and im going to create change in my sport and my community and i want you guys to be a part of it. So theres a whole balancing act of emotions. You go through that side on monday through friday. And then or monday through saturday, really, and then you climb in the car to go race. Theres a light switch. If youve seen Richard Petty and myself, he was touching the back of my head. He said, this is where you get to turn off that switch and go have fun and get away from all the madness. Thats what it is. Trevor as you said, im glad your family is safe. Im glad you are, too. And relief is the feeling that i think a lot of people feel right now. Good luck to you for the rest of season, and congratulations on all of your work and how youre speaking out. Thank so much for joining us on the show. Thank you, brother, i appreciate it. Tell lewis i said, whats up . Trevor will do. Thank you so much, bubba. When whee come back, well talk about a tool for white people who trying to learn how to be 2 be your cousin. From boston. Theres nothing like a crisp refreshing sam adams boston lager. A perfect balance of malt hops. Sorry. I was gonna buy that sixpack. Ah, ten bucks. That includes mine. Yep, ok. Yep, ok. Well, heres to first dates you look amazing. And you look amazingly comfortable. When your vneck looks more like a uneck. Thats when you know, its halfwashed. Try downy fabric conditioner. Unlike detergent alone, downy helps prevent stretching by conditioning and smoothing fibers, so clothes look newer, longer. Downy and its done. 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Police departments are being scrutinized and even changed, companies are looking at their lack of diversity, and racist statues are falling harder than mike pence boarding a plane. And in rhode island, theyre taking steps to make their official state name a lot less problematic. Rhode islands official name could soon exclude a portion with ties to slavery. The official name of rhode island is rhode island and providence plantations. The states governor signed an executive order to remove providence plantations from citations, state websites, and state employee pay stubs. We cant ignore the image conjured by the word plantations. We cant ignore how painful that is for black Rhode Islanders to see that and have to see that as part of their states name. Trevor all right, america is just weird. Because, i didnt even know that Rhode Islands official full name was rhode island and providence plantations. Do all the states have problematic full names that we just never heard about . Like, is it actually, the republic of california and japanese interment camps . Or, alaska, too new for slavery but kinda wish we had a shot at it . Is maines full name gucci maine . So, clearly, theres a lot of progress still to be made. And one of the encouraging things weve seen is how many white people are now asking the question, what change can i make in myself to move things forward . What people are asking what books to read, what films to watch, and how to be a better ally. All of this is great. But, unfortunately, the person theyre asking is usually their one black friend which is exhausting. Because remember, if youre a white person with one black friend, theyre also the one black friend of 10 other white people. Its a lot of stress to put on them. And black people in this position, i know how it feels, and i think we found the solution for you. Are you tired of your white friends interrupting your busy day with questions about Race Relations . Well, now, theres an easier way to help educate them by giving them the gift of black lexa from amazon. Black lex aim confused. Whats wrong with saying, all lives matter . Saying this erases the history of black oppression in this country and sets back the goal of equality. Oh, that makes sense. Black lexa is programmed to absorb all the emotional labor of helping your wellmeaning but pain fli white friends. I want to go to a protest, but i dont know how to chance. Lets practice. After i say, no justice, you say, no peace. No justice. No bees im sorry, what is it . Oooh black lexa can even recommend good books and movies for your friends and keep them from watching bad ones. Hey, black lex aput on green book. Why does that always happen. Best of all, your white friends will learn something. Hey, black lex aisnt it problematic that you work for free given the history of slavery in america and. Look at you. You are finally getting it. Thanks, my home girl. Dont dont do that. Im sorry. Black lexa from amazon. Helping your white friends so you dont have to. Stop that what is wrong with you i need a new job trevor man, now i know what im getting all my white friends for christmas. Dont go away, because after the break, john legend is on the show, and shes performing a song from his brandnew album. Well be right back. We tested 25 million people. When you do testing to that extent, youre going to find more people. So i said to my people, slow the testing down, please. It was a comment he made in jest. Come on, now, that was tongue in cheek. When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, i said please dont be too nice. I believe he was making a joke at the time. laughter president obama, he is the founder of isis. Hes the found of isis. Trump insisted he was being sarcastic. laughter . Russia, if youre listening, i hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. Sean spicer said the president was clearly joking. laughter and then i see the disinfectant, knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do Something Like that by injection inside, or. The president now says he was being sarcastic. laughter i dont kid. You doing okay . Yeah. This moving thing never gets any easier. Well, xfinity makes moving super easy. I can transfer my internet and tv service in about a minute. Wow, that is easy. Almost as easy as having those guys help you move. We are those guys. Thats you . The truck adds 10 pounds. In the arms. Okay. Transfer your Service Online in a few easy steps. Now thats simple, easy, awesome. Transfer your service in minutes, making moving with xfinity a breeze. Visit xfinity. Com moving today. Daily social distancing show. Earlier today, i spoke with egot winner and multiplatinum artist john legend about the black live Matter Movement and how it affected his new album, bigger love. John legend, welcome to the southern. My pleasure. Good to see you again. This is our first time during the socially distancing error. Trevor this is our first time. Hopefully it will be the last time. I like hear hearing your silky voice in person. Im sure you miss your audience, too. I think all of us, as performers, miss our audiences, and theres something about, particularly with comdierk its nice to hear the laughs in in person, as you deliver the jokes. And i think for artists, its the same. We want to hear the crowd. We want to feel the response that they give us right away, so i think we all miss that and look forward to the say daywhen thats safe again. Trevor to be honest, i think it goes both ways. Ive talked to some of my fans where they go, i miss the feeling of other human beings experiencing something around me, you know, like a collective joy. Ive been to concerts where half of the concert is just enjoying other human beings having a great time around me. Exactly. And as much as we are doing these Instagram Live concerts from home and, you know, alicia and i did the versus thing, its very different to feel the crowd and theres no experience that will duplicate that. Trevor yeah. Lets talk a little bit about that you know, that place in the world, being not just an artist but being a black artist, being a black artist who is also conscious, you know. Before these protests began, john legend had been on the ground. Youve been fighting for changes in mass incarceration. Youve been fighting to change how america treats black people. Youve been fighting for ecall equality and justice for a long time. Is this part of the movement youve been hoping to see for so long . Well, seeing the folks in the streets, seeing this multiracial, multigenerational Huge Movement of people in the streets has been very inspiring for me. It does make he hopeful about the future. But i also know that theres a lot of work that goes into actually making the change that were speaking out for. And so all of the times in between these big protests are when a lot of that work has to get done. Trevor right. And so and so, activists,orgers, theyre seizing this momentum and saying, lets get in these city council meetings, lets talk to our congress people, lets organize, lets mobilize people to get out to vote for a particular District Attorney candidate or a particular county sheriff candidate. And so that is kind of the everyday, grinding work of a democracy that needs to be done for us to see the kinds of changes we want to see. It happens when youre doling with School Boards and zoning, you know, so many of the things that affect the daily lives of so many people and that have affected black and brown lives so negatively over the years have been these local decisions, like housing segregation and zoning and School Segregation and who gets chosen to be the police chief and how much budget goes to policing, how much budget goes to the county jail or to the state prisons . So all of these decision, they dont get a lot of headlines a lot of times, and we dont think about them when we think about our elections most of the time. But thats just where the decision are being made. And if were not engaged in democracy in that way, then sometimes we miss out on being in the room to make those decision and having our voices heard when those decision are made. Trevor what i found particularly interesting, especially in your case, is that ive seen a lot of work that youve been doing, you know, in the space of social justice. What i was surprised by is you announcing a new album. I was like, wait, when was john legend recording an album . When was he making music . How was he making music . One thing that im always intrigued by is the ability of an artist to exist in multiple spaces at the same time. Because i thought this album was just going to be about whats happening. I thought it was going to be like a coronavirus album. But it seems like youve chosen to go back to classic john legend and almost give us an escape from everything thats going wrong in the world. Well, the the timing has been so interesting because i i was writing this album in 2019, all through the year. I was writing it early this year, 2020. And i was done writing the album by the time we all went to lockdown. And so, this album is a reflection of where i was when i was writing it, and all of 2019 and early 2020. Its an expression of joy, of love, of human connection, of nostalgia, of my love for black music and all the music thats really made me the artist i am. Thats really what this album is inspired by. And, of course, its coming at an odd time, you know. Its coming at a time when everyone has been on lockdown for several months, for the last few weeks weve seen people protesting in the streets about the killing of george floyd and Breonna Taylor and others. So it does feel a little odd putting music out in this moment that isnt directly responding to what was happening in this moment. But thats kind of the nature of making an album. Its a long process, and i will be writing more music, and some of that will be responsive to whats happening right this moment. But it will take a while for even that to be done and ready to be put out again. And what i do think is music has the power to lift people up, to give them hope tosh make them feel that connection, feel that love. And i feel like people could use some more of that right now. And i think this album has that kind of feeling to it. Trevor yeah, it really is its a smooth album, you know. Its smooth. Its really im serious its like its comforting. Its beautiful. Its classic john legend in the way that we know and love you. And youve got some youve got some wonderful cameos that come on and join, everybody from gary clark jr. , and its beautiful to hear these different sounds and mel bees coming together. Why the title bigger love . It feels like thats been a theme ive heard frurecently. I heard it in the verses with you and alicia. It felt like it was a battle of love, which ive never encountered, ive never experienced in life. It feels like thats something youve really been pushing. When i was writing these songs, that was what was in my head. I wrote the title track bigger love back in the fall of last year with ryan at th tetter and conscious clay, and we were trying to write a beautiful song that felt connected. It felt honest and it felt powerful and necessary in that moment. We didnt know how necessary it would be, you know, a few months later and how much connection people would be craving at this moment. But it felt right at the time. And it feels even more relevant now. And i think the idea behind the title is that this album is colorful, its full of love, full of hope and optimism. Is and that title felt like it captured that, that sentiment for me. Trevor john legend, thank you so much for for the music. Well be playing the audience a performance you put together for us which is really gorgeous. Its surreal, because as you say, theres no audience. Its a different type of vibe, its a different type of expression, and im really excited for people to see it. I hope you and your family stay safe and healthy, and i cant wait to see you again. Thank you, trevor. Trevor thanks, john. Were going to hear john perform a single from bigger love right here on the daily show. But first, as you may know, june is pride month, and right now, we want to highlight charities that are making a difference for l. G. B. T. Q. People of color, like the National Black justice coalition, which advocates for federal policies that fight against racism and homophobia. Now, if you can help them and and you can, please donate what you can. And if youd like to support efforts to help black l. G. B. T. Q. People here in new york specifically, then you can donate to the audre lorde project. They help communities of color fight for their rights and organize for change. Until tomorrow, stay safe out there, check regularly for nooses, and now, to perform never break from his new album, please welcome back john legend. Oh, yeah we got a good thing, babe whenever life is hard well never lose our way cause we both know who we are who knows about tomorrow . We dont know whats in the stars i just know ill always follow the light in your heart im not worried about us and ive never been we know how the story ends we will never break we will never break built on a Foundation Strong enough to stay we will never break as the water rises and the mountains shake our love will remain we will never no, never we will never no, no, never we will never no, never we will never no the world is dangerous theres nothing we cannot take we will never break we will never break build on the Foundation Stronger than the pain we will never break how the water rises and the mountains shake our love will remain we will never no, no, never we will never no, no, never we will never no, never we will never no we will never no, never we will no im goin down to south park gonna have myself a time Friendly Faces everywhere humble folks without temptation im goin down to south park gonna leave my woes behind ample parking day or night people spouting, howdy, neighbor headin on up to south park, gonna see if i cant unwind [muffled] come on down to south park and meet some friends of mine