Aziz Ansari has an interview with The Daily Beast as part of his Emmy campaign for “Master of None,” his Netflix series. (If you have not seen it yet don’t wait!) The show, co-created by Ansari and his friend, Parks and Rec writer Alan Yang, has been nominated for four Emmys including best actor for Ansari, best writers, outstanding comedy, and direction. The episode “Parents” got two nominations as it was submitted for consideration and really resonates with people. In his Daily Beast interview, Ansari talked about that episode and you can tell how proud he is when people tell him that his work was meaningful to them. That sounds like the main reason he’s a comedian and writer – he wants to relate and convey the shared human experience.

In June, when the extent of Donald Trump’s racism, nationalism and general awfulness was only partially known to the public (although that’s probably still the case), Ansari wrote an oped for the NY Times calling out the orange one for his divisiveness and for his “vitriolic and hate-filled rhetoric.” It was spot on, and Ansari explained how Trump and his supporters were particularly threatening to people of color and of the Muslim faith, like his family. Ansari told The Daily Beast that he was surprised his NY Times article got as much attention as it did and that he has hope that most people are generally good. I’m excerpting some of the interview below and it’s worth reading it full at the source:

Why do you think [empathy] became a hallmark of the show?
I guess for me and Alan [Yang], that’s part of our own values. I think our idea is basically that everyone’s life is very interesting and has unique struggles and conundrums and that’s what makes us all unique and amazing. But at the same time, there’s a universality to all of these experiences that I think is also really interesting. Those are the two things the show is about, in a way.

You wrote a piece for The New York Times earlier this year about how Donald Trump’s rhetoric makes you scared for your parents, who are Muslim. How did you find that piece resonated? And how do keep up hope amid his constant onslaught of hate?
You know, I put out that article and I thought like, “Maybe this will resonate with other brown people.” But it ended up being like the most-emailed, most-viewed article on the site for a couple of days. People come up to me of all different races, all different religions like, “That’s really cool that you wrote that. I really liked that article.”

I think with Trump, that’s just ultimately how he treats everyone that isn’t someone who looks like him. (Laughs) Blaming them for something, misrepresenting them, making them some sort of strange character that they’re not, not giving them the depth that he would give other white people. I think that’s what people responded to. And what gives me hope is that I think sometimes the people that are more negative, kind of troll-y type people, they’re very loud, but I think they’re a loud minority. It’s a strange juxtaposition, but I think there are still plenty of good people. I have hope.

[From The Daily Beast]

As Kaiser and a lot of my other friends are doing, I check fivethirtyeight.com every day and take comfort in the fact that Trump’s chances of winning are very low. It baffles me that anyone could vote for that guy given the horribly racist, sexist, bullsh*t that comes out of his mouth on a daily basis. He lies, he contradicts himself, he has a hair trigger temper and he’s cheated and scammed countless people. He also has zero experience in politics. It’s scary that anyone would vote for him, but like Ansari said they’re just loud trolls. It’s been enlightening to see which of my friends and acquaintances can support a candidate like that, and I’m sure a lot of like-minded people are coming to similar realizations about their social circle.

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