Comedian Chelsea Handler revealed during an interview on NPR's "It's Been A Minute With Sam Sanders" that shortly after Donald Trump's presidential win in 2016, she would go to the airport to scream at people watching Fox News and call them racists.
Sanders asked Handler what was the catalyst for her to seek out therapy as going through the healing process gave her the "gift of self-awareness."
"Yeah. I mean, it was after the election. I mean, the election, I was just like, oh, my God, is this - I couldn't believe it. You know, I just - and I became so outraged. You know, I was going to Fox News lounges walking over - like, when I was at the airport, I was going to the Fox News section, and I would start screaming at Trump supporters. I'd be like, how could you possibly - I'd call people racist. Like, I was at the airport enraged. I once went to the airport and I didn't even have a flight. Like, I was looking for trouble," she said.
Handler said she tried getting out of her "bubble" and actually talk to conservatives to try to understand what they believe and why they would vote for Trump as a form of therapy.
"So I kind of went into therapy under the subterfuge of, like, oh, I'm going to, you know, go learn how to talk to conservatives," she explained. "What I was really doing without saying was like, OK, I need to figure out what my, like, you know, anger issues are really about and, you know, what that is covering up, which is always something. You know, anger's never anger. It's always hurt or pain."
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During the same interview, Handler added, "And after therapy and kind of taking a look at myself and my surroundings and coming to the realization that my success has a lot to do with my skin color, I wanted to really do something that set an example about how to, you know, contribute because at this point, it's not enough to just say you're not racist. You know, you have to be - we have to be working to dismantle the system because we are reaping the benefits in exchange for people losing benefits."
One of Handler's most recent projects was her Netflix documentary Hello Privilege. It's Me, Chelsea, which showcased how she confronted her white privilege.
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