Politics & Power Quote by Montel Williams

Montel Williams is doing something TV hosts rarely get credit for: using the casual authority of frequent travel to puncture America’s favorite alibi - that racism is either uniquely our shame or, depending on who’s talking, not really a problem because “others have it worse.” By rattling off London, Holland, Denmark, he borrows the credibility of the passport stamp: I’ve seen enough up close to make a comparison, not just a hot take.

The line “every nation on this planet has its issues with race” isn’t an excuse; it’s a trapdoor under the listener’s complacency. If racism is global, then no country gets to hide behind self-congratulation (“we’re progressive”) or exceptionalism (“we’re uniquely broken”). He’s flattening the moral hierarchy that lets people treat prejudice as a regional defect instead of a recurring feature of modern society - one that mutates with history, immigration, class, and national myths.

The second sentence does the real work. “I am not sure if everyone has figured out how to deal with it” is deliberately modest, even understated, which makes it harder to dismiss as scolding. It also signals fatigue: not outrage, but the weary recognition that policy, polite language, and cosmopolitan branding haven’t solved the underlying problem. Coming from an entertainer, the subtext is pointed: if someone whose job is to translate culture for mass audiences can see the pattern, then the rest of us don’t get to pretend it’s too complex to name.