Maher didn’t threaten anyone. It was an offhand quip, and one that folks — black and white — used to laugh at. It’s almost impossible to be a funny comedian these days. I’m reminded of this:
Across the United States, high-profile comedians like Jerry Seinfeld, Larry the Cable Guy and Chris Rock have said they are avoiding campuses because of student hypersensitivity. “I don’t play colleges, but I hear a lot of people tell me, ‘They’re so PC,’” Seinfeld famously told ESPN’s Colin Cowherd in June. “[Young people] just want to use these words: ‘That’s racist;’ ‘That’s sexist;’ ‘That’s prejudice.’ … They don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.” — The Wrap, August 23, 2015
That is not the damned point. It’s about WHO gets to use that term for laughs/point making, and WHO does not.