Oscar winning actress Meryl Steep made headlines after her Golden Globes speech last Sunday.  With the country on edge about the Presidential inauguration ahead, Streep took the opportunity to talk about the importance of diversity and outsiders as well as the president-elect’s controversial words and actions. 

However, Streep not only made waves due to the topic of diversity in the speech, but also for the words spoken about the president-elect. 

Streep’s speech included a part aimed at the president-elect in regard to his behavior towards a disabled journalist, siting that “his instinct to humiliate when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing.”

On Monday night’s “Daily Show,” Trevor Noah, praised Streep for the impactful messages that Streep delivered, such as, “Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose.” 

Noah praised the speech as “really great except for this one tiny part, for me, where Meryl Streep, like her character in ‘Florence Foster Jenkins,’ was tone-deaf.”  The part of the speech that Noah refers to is when Streep condemned and called mixed martial arts and football not art.

He goes on to explain that in order to make a strong point, one does not have to put down the interests and likes of others.  A person that enjoys watching football or partaking in mixed martial arts can also appreciate the arts.  Noah further notes that he actually tuned into a football game with friends before turning on the Golden Globes.

However, Noah goes on to explain to his audience that “if you focus on that part of the speech, you miss the larger point. It was a speech about respect; it was a speech about empathy; and, most importantly, it was a speech about responsibility.” The overall issue that Noah had with Streep’s speech is that although it was supposed to emphasize inclusiveness, it actually ended up ostracizing an entire group of people.

Later in the commentary, Noah calls out Hollywood for its celebration of progressiveness, yet still implements and enforces the same negative stereotypic characters over and over again.  In Hollywood movies, Noah mentioned how most Middle Easterners are portrayed as terrorists.  In addition, most African American roles are gangsters and slaves. 

Noah refers to the nominated movies “Hidden Figures” and “Fences” as examples of how there are “diverse stories to tell.” Although, a few Hollywood figures themselves mixed up the names of the films, adding to the debate over whether or not Hollywood is considered progressive and inclusive. 

However, Streep’s speech did more than cause concern over the incoming president. It has sparked a conversation over whether or not Hollywood has lost touch with everyday America.

In an article for the LA Times, Colleen Shabby attempted to open a dialogue with readers by asking them if they felt as though Hollywood was out of touch with Americans now. She asked that readers comment on the article or on the Facebook page about their opinions on the matter.