"Look, I realise I'm not the ideal person to talk about Black hair. I look like I still go to an old-timey barber named Valentino and ask for 'the tidy Liza Minnelli.'"
That's the admission John Oliver makes at the beginning of his latest Last Week Tonight monologue, before going on to explain that many white people don't understand a lot about Black hair — and that lack of understanding (as well as a lack of interesting in understanding) can have both personal and professional consequences.
"Black hair shouldn't be viewed, corralled or judged by white people's comfort, because it doesn't belong to white people, it doesn't affect white people, and white people really don't need to have an opinion on it," concludes Oliver, after giving a series of examples of Black people who've been discriminated against because of their hair, including retracted job offers, cultural appropriation, and unwanted questions/touching.
To finish, he hands things over to actors Uzo Aduba, Craig Robinson, and Leslie Jones, who address white viewers directly with a brilliantly blunt PSA.
Topics John Oliver
