John Oliver Talks School Segregation on ‘Last Week Tonight’

Here’s a clip from last night’s Last Week Tonight, where John Oliver takes a closer look at the history of school desegregation in the US and explains how, thanks to systemic racism, many schools in the US are now more segregated than ever. “The hard truth is, you don’t have to be intentionally racist to do things that have racist effects,� Oliver says, pointing out the multiple ways segregation negatively affects black and white students not just while they’re in school but long into adulthood. “While this always gets framed as an issue about parents and their children, it’s actually about adults and everybody,� Oliver says. “Because kids grow up, and those little doctors, soldiers, police officers, and superheroes asking you for candy tomorrow night, in a decade or so they might be actual doctors, soldiers, police officers, and assistant directors of human resources.�