HBO’s John Oliver Demands Reparations For Black Americans, Argues Against Color-Blind Policies

John Oliver, host of HBO’s fake news show, “Last Week Tonight,” believes the U.S. government should pay monetary restitution to black Americans to compensate for the country’s past racism. “The only really strange thing about [it],” he argued Sunday night, “is that we haven’t done it yet.”

Citing Ta-Nehisi Coates’ 2014 Atlantic article, “The Case for Reparations,” the British comedian based his argument not on slavery but on housing discrimination.

Oliver said the history of race and land ownership in America has “many horrifying chapters, pretty much from chapter one when America was discovered from under other people’s feet.”

Despite the fact that the Fair Housing Act, first enacted in 1968, makes it illegal to consider race or skin color in the sale of homes, Oliver contended that minorities still face discrimination when it comes to federal mortgage loans and home appraisals.