Jon Stewart assesses the Charleston shooting: 'This one is black and white'

US host warned viewers they could not expect comedy that evening

Jon Stewart on the Charleston shooting (YouTube)

Jon Stewart has offered his own bleak assessment on the recent Charleston shooting: “this one is black and white.”

The US comedian and The Daily Show host, who will hand over to South African successor Trevor Noah in August, admitted to his audience last night that he had “nothing for you in terms of jokes and sounds.”

Nine people died after 21-year-old Dylann Roof sat through a prayer service in a Charleston church, South Carolina, yesterday before opening fire.

Following the man’s arrest, information about what unfolded in the church – notable for being one of the first black churches established in the south and long a beacon of civil rights – slowly emerged.

Sylvia Johnson, related to one of the survivors of the massacre, told NBC News that the shooter told victims: “‘I have to do it. You rape our women and you’re taking over our country. And you have to go.’”

“This wasn’t a tornado, this was racist,” Stewart commented on the show last night.

He continued: “I don’t want to get into the political argument, but what blows my mind is the disparity of response between when we think people that are foreign are going to kill us and us killing ourselves.”

Stewart, who is notable for his consistently outspoken attitude towards the dire state of race relations in the US, added that there was “no nuance” in the situation.