"Patriot Act’s" Melanin Takeover

Rapid music starts off the show at the pace of one’s heartbeat. We are given the profile of Hasan Minhaj before the curtains open and an intense diamond-like stage covered in LCD screens is revealed with a young man talking rapidly, using his hands even faster, and bouncing on the balls of his feet. Hasan Minhaj’s Patriot Act embodies his journey in his political satire career, but he has never been allowed to be so personable before. And, it is in these extra moments of his identity showing through where the show truly shines. 

While some people may argue that Hasan Minhaj is more or less the same than all the other talk show hosts out there, I have to disagree on many aspects. The first of which is content. Minhaj uses his background to choose content that other talk show hosts haven’t necessarily talked about. While there is strong overlap with John Oliver’s show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Minhaj has brought has segments that we expected to see such as shows on drug pricing and internet inequality. But, he also brings on topics that can be very relatable to the millenial world such as Amazon and his own Amazon Prime struggle or discussing student loans in a way that makes it less boring when your financial aid counselor did it at school. But, what is perhaps the best part, is that Hasan Minhaj takes an active role in his coined term of “the melanin takedown”. 

One of the many ways Minhaj demonstrates this role is that he introduces the world to topics like Indian elections or cricket corruption. A gigantic proportion of Americans do not know anything about cricket or Indian subcontinent culture in general. In fact, many people who grow up here with immigrant parents do not end up learning about these topics either. This is perhaps one of the best aspects of Minhaj’s show--he wants to learn beside you. Unlike other satirical shows out there, it is clear that Minhaj just wants to have an open heart-to-heart with you and discuss the stuff that you both don’t know together. Even his extended cut clips demonstrate this. He drops little pieces of his life for us in the Q&A segments and he always asks the audience if they can relate to these moments of his life. For Hasan, he’s still trying to find himself and solidify the increasingly abstract concept of identity. And, he wants to do that together. 

For the longest time, I struggled with my own identity. In middle school, I was different for being a plucky Muslim kid. In high school, I was different for being from the Indian subcontinent. A girl in high school once told me to my face that she hates “brown people”. And, it’s hard to rely on your immigrant parents to talk about these issues. To me, it is insane how if you make the wrong type of friends in your school years, you can end up hating yourself so much. But, I think for many young kids who are part of this “brown” culture, growing up in America gets a little easier when you have Hasan’s overly energetic hand maneuvers to wave away those feelings of doubt inside of you. This show was duly needed for not only this population of people in the United States, but everyone in the United States because it contributes to the further education of everyone. Thanks Hasan Minhaj and watch Patriot Act on Netflix!