A woman who identified herself as a College employee heckled Sammy Anzer, a traveling stand-up comedian, with comments he described as “racist” at his comedy show at Bright Ideas Brewing in North Adams on Feb. 3. Anzer posted a compilation of videos of the interaction to Instagram — though the person who made the comments is not shown — which has received over 100 comments, many of which call on the College to respond to the incident.
Anzer — who identifies as mixed-race and whose comedy explores, among other topics, his experience of being multiracial in the United States — opened his set with a series of jokes about American stereotypes about Indian people.
Roughly two minutes into the set, the woman, who Anzer estimated was two or three rows from the front, yelled the word “diversity,” an interaction captured in an unedited video of Anzer’s set that he provided to the Record.
“Did you just yell out ‘diversity,’ ma’am?” Anzer responded from the stage. “What the fuck? How many beers have you had?”
Over the next minute, the woman said that she worked at the College and that diversity “is what is embedded into us.” After a few exchanges with Anzer, he asked her to stop shouting during his set.
Fifteen minutes later, the woman called out from the audience, “whoever smelt it, dealt it,” following a joke by Anzer about flatulence.
“You are making the show worse by yelling things out,” Anzer responded, before saying that it was the woman’s final chance before he had her thrown out of the venue. She did not interrupt for the remainder of his hour-long set.
“Her interrupting my set gave me and the audience two main ideas,” Anzer said in an interview with the Record. “One of them is that she’s the kind of person who views diversity and diversity initiatives — I don’t know what’s going on at Williams College — but she [views herself] as a victim of these things.”
“The other thing that was so appalling was the impunity with which she was yelling and announcing these things,” he continued. “I’m not asking her what she’s doing. I’m trying to put on a show.”
After the show was over, the woman approached Anzer, told him that she “loved” the show, and asked if the group with whom she attended could take a photo with him, Anzer said. As they posed for the photo, Anzer added, the group held up middle fingers and said “Fuck diversity.”
“I’m like, maybe these are nice people — maybe I had it wrong,” Anzer told the Record. “Then they do ‘fuck diversity,’ and I’m like, ‘What? What?’”
“When she did that, I was like, ‘Oh no, this is indicative of a systemic ill,’” he continued. “She is not the only person — though she is one — who I imagine views diversity initiatives as a problem and something that she is a victim of.”
On Feb. 12, Anzer posted compiled clips of the woman’s comments during the show to his Instagram account and detailed his off-stage interaction with her group.
“Is this who you want proudly representing you, Williams College?” Anzer wrote in the caption of his post. “Let’s tag @williamscollege in the comments and find out what they have to say.”
The same day, Anzer emailed Vice President for Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leticia S. E. Haynes ’99, explaining the incident and asking to further discuss the situation. Haynes set a time to speak on the phone two days later.
In an interview with the Record, Haynes said that the College “is not actively trying to find out” who heckled Anzer at his comedy show and that nobody had come forward with more information. She also said that she did not know whether the person was a former or current employee, or whether the person had any affiliation with the College at all.
“This is not something that happened on our campus, so we don’t technically have control over that space, and we are not able to dictate or regulate what happens in those off-campus spaces,” Haynes said.
In the past, Anzer has performed at colleges around the country and led trainings for educators on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). He told the Record that his ideal vision of retribution for the incident at his comedy show would be the opportunity to lead a seminar at Williams to address the incident as a “teachable moment.”
“I would partner with Williams College and do some kind of training, where it’s like, ‘Hey, here’s an example of what not to be. Where can we go from here?’” he said.
While Haynes and Anzer discussed the potential of the College hiring Anzer to lead future DEI programming during their phone call, Haynes told the Record that Anzer — if he were hired — would be selected not to directly address the incident at his comedy show, but rather due to his merits as a DEI professional.
“Although not in an attempt to rectify what occurred off campus, based on Anzer’s past work in the DEI space, he may be considered for future programming,” she said. “Racism is a form of systemic oppression,” Haynes continued. “We aim to educate, through workshops and facilitated conversations, the faculty, staff and students in our community about all forms of bias and discrimination including racism.”
