By SHANTELLEE BROWN
OSKALOOSA — William Penn students indulged in the confrontational mind of a well-known comedian named Preacher Moss Thursday at the student union.
While Moss makes a living being funny, he tackled a serious topic at William Penn when he spoke about “The End of Racism.”
Preacher Moss grew up in Washington, D.C. He attended Marquette University, where he studied Comedy 101, as well as Islam. Moss converted religions to become a Muslim. His religion is the selection of a lot of his comedy skits. After graduating from Marquette University, Moss became a teacher at a Catholic school where he taught for several years to emotionally disturbed children.
Although he enjoyed teaching, Moss did not lose his passion for humor — he continued to perform stand-up comedy on the side in Milwaukee.
Moss later gave up teaching to pursue his career in comedy. He engages audiences in current topics that face society through humor. Moss has written for Damon Wayans, of “In Living Color” and “My Wife and Kids”; Darrell Hammond, of “Saturday Night Live”; and George Lopez, of “The George Lopez Show,” as well as appeared on other comedy shows. He has performed nationally for numerous years, offering the perception of being both black and Muslim in America.
Moss began the evening with a few light jokes about Iowa and the weather before he proceeded to the subject matter of the event. Moss said he believes that “Out of oppression comes racism.” He also stated that oppression applies to three main stages: Arrogance — The I am better than you stage; Envy — The I want what you have because I am better than you stage; and the Inequity stage — I am going to take away what you have.
To further express his feelings towards racism, Moss continually stated throughout his performance, the insignificance of racial profiling.
“There is no such thing as black, or white,” Moss said. “We were all the breed of a different nationality.”
After this statement, he randomly pointed into the crowd and had them say their backgrounds, to advance his point that we all racially profile others even though we are “Politically Incorrect.”
Moss ended the evening with an all-audience participation activity. He had the crowd stand up and raise their right hand using their fingers to simulate a series of five-letter words that he felt were important. He used words like Black, White, Asian, Hater and Lover. He also used five letter acronyms such as O.O.O.C.R. (Out of oppression comes Racism), E.Y.A.V.Y, (Empower yourself and value yourself).
Moss frequently pointed out what he wanted the crowd to take out of his performance, he hoped that each individual left with their own sense of “self-enlightenment” as well as a few laughs.
“He was hilarious,” said Kendrea Dickson a sophomore at Penn. Her favorite part was the ending series of five-letter words.
“I agreed with a lot of his views on racism — especially how we are all ‘Politically Incorrect,’” she said.
