John Oliver Explains the Obvious to White People: Dressing Up as Other Races Is Terrible

Former ‘Daily Show’ correspondent John Oliver on Sunday premiered the third episode of his brand new news-satire show, “Last Week Tonight.” The British comedian’s show devoted an entire three minutes to one question: “Dressing up as different races…how is this still a thing?”

It used to be that you only heard about people dressing up in black face or stereotypes of other ethnic groups on Halloween. But these days it seems like it’s a year-round thing, with even national news networks getting into the “dressing up like other cultures” thing.

Last week, on Cinco de Mayo, MSNBC’s “Way too early” celebrated what they called “Mexican heritage and pride” by allowing a producer to parade around the studio drinking tequila while he wore a giant sombrero. That same day, on ABC’s “Good Morning America” an anchor wore a sombrero and referred to the day as “Cinco de Drinko.”

Both anchors went on to apologize; MSNBC issued an on-air apology, while “Good Morning America” host Lara Spencer tweeted her apology.

Maybe now that a white British comedian’s show has reminded people that this is still a thing everyone will think twice about dressing up as other races.

* In a joint venture with Univision, ABC News is one of Fusion’s parent companies.