Trevor Noah Says Pressure to Mourn Queen Is 'Recolonizing' People in Video

Trevor Noah said people "oppressed by the British Crown" are being "recolonized" by pressure to mourn Queen Elizabeth II and added: "You can't expect people to show respect for something that never respected them."

The Daily Show host said some royalists were getting "angry" in a "really ignorant way" with people who did not share their reverence for the late queen.

Elizabeth died last Thursday, triggering mourning in Britain and around the world.

There were also protests in Britain—include some arrests by police—while an American professor sparked a backlash after saying the queen was "finally dying" and adding: "May her pain be excruciating."

Noah said in a September 17 viral clip: "What was fascinating to me was seeing how angry some people were that not everybody had the same opinion of the queen and how much they wanted other people to have that. In a really ignorant way to be honest, you know."

"I'm shocked that people want others who were under the British Empire to share the same level of mourning," he continued. "Why would they do it? People are like 'show some respect, this person died.' And people are like 'so what?' Like everywhere, you know what I mean, all over Africa, all over India, there are so many places where people go, 'but do you know the British Empire did to us.'

"And people are like, 'that's somebody's grandmother, show some reverence' and I actually found it interesting because you know what it is? Most of the time, it's not about respecting the person or what they've done or what they have.

"In a weird way, it's that people have this strange reverence for fame. It's that a famous person has gone and so everyone must respect them regardless of what the famous person is famous for.

"You can't say to people who have been oppressed by the British Crown that they should not in some way shape or form say whatever they want."

He added: "You can't expect people to show respect for something that never respected them."

Noah described how in South Africa, where he grew up, people were brought up as British subjects and talked about the way traditional culture, clothing and languages were "squashed" by colonialism.

"You can say 'hey, this is my queen, I still love what she represents,'" he said. "That's your queen but don't expect everybody else to now adopt... because basically what you're doing is recolonizing the people and saying 'this is who you support, this is who you cheer for.'

"No, you do your mourning and they'll live their lives. Long live the King."

Among debate surrounding the queen's death, Carnegie Mellon University linguistics professor Uju Anya was heavily criticized for her response on the day Elizabeth died.

One Tweet read: "I heard the chief monarch of a thieving, raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating."

She added: "If anyone expects me to express anything but disdain for the monarch who supervised a government that sponsored the genocide that massacred and displaced half my family and the consequences of which those alive today are still trying to overcome, you can keep wishing upon a star."

Talk TV host Piers Morgan was among those to object to the comments, and told his viewers: "I can understand why some Americans don't get the concept of a monarchy. What I find really objectionable is what some American academics have been saying.

"So this is a woman called Uju Anya. She's actually an academic at Carnegie Mellon. She teaches people this woman."

Noah's video, which was viewed more than 900,000 times on Twitter, came two days before royal family members gathered for Elizabeth's funeral and while she was lying in state at Westminster Hall, in London.

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