British comedian John Oliver, the host of HBO’s Last Week Tonight, scolded Joe Biden for saying racism against Asians is “un-American,” and proclaimed “anti-Asian racism” is a “fact of American life.”
During the show’s broadcast on Sunday, Oliver went on the attack against President Biden and the United States in the wake of a mass murder spree in Atlanta, Georgia, that many critics rushed to call “racist” despite law enforcement ruling out race as a motive for the shootings.
Oliver began his segment showing a video of Biden calling the attack in Atlanta “vicious hate crimes against Asian Americans who’ve been attacked, harassed, blamed and scapegoated. It’s wrong, it’s un-American, and it must stop.”
Watch below:
Oliver, though, disagreed that racism against Asians is “un-American.” Indeed, as far as he is concerned, anti-Asian racism is all too American.
“I am really glad that he condemned hate crimes against Asians there but to say they are un-American,” Oliver said. “I would love to visit the nation that exists in Joe Biden’s head. Because it’s a place where racism is [using air quotes] ‘not who we are’ and racist attacks against Asians are somehow ‘un-American’ despite the fact that — far be it for me to explain this to someone who seems like he’s lived through most of American history — anti-Asian racism has long been a fact of American life.”
Oliver cited the anti-Asian sentiment seen on the West Coast during the building of America’s railroad infrastructure during the late 1800s and the Chinese Exclusion Act meant to limit freedom for Asians. He also cited the Japanese internment camps during World War II.
“Not only are attacks against Asians very much American, so is denying that they’re racist. It’s so American, in fact, that the National Anthem should begin, ‘Oh say can you, it’s not about race?'” Oliver said. Oliver went on to claim that Georgia’s Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office spokesman, Capt. Jay Baker, “minimized what happened” in the murder of eight people, six of whom were Asian women.
Oliver growled that Baker “had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, and what he did was shrug it the fuck off and go to bed while managing to murder zero people.”
Oliver also railed against Georgia authorities for refusing to label the killings a “hate crime.”
“A white man driving across two counties going to three Asian-owned businesses shooting and killing six Asian women in a city that’s only about 4 percent Asian sure as shit seems more like a hate crime to me than a ‘bad fucking day,” Oliver exclaimed.
The Comedy Central alum next blamed Donald Trump for the crime because the former president called the Wuhan coronavirus the “China flu.” And then Oliver hammered The View co-host Meghan McCain for her comments about the virus.
“Oh good! Meghan McCain doesn’t have a problem with it! Listen not to the scores of Asian-Americans telling everyone that the term is dangerous and offensive,” Oliver exploded, “instead, gather round and take the word of a wealthy white woman who’s dressed like she’s about to lay off 47 people on Zoom.”
Despite Oliver’s proclamations that the shooting in Atlanta somehow must be anti-Asian racism, police investigators have not been able to find any proof that the killer targeted his victims merely because they were Asian.
Thus far, police believe that the killer’s motive stems from his claims of sex addiction. The police investigating say that the man shot up the spas because he felt they were places of prostitution. In fact, the spas targeted had been the focus of past prostitution investigations.
Regardless, officials have not taken hate crime charges off the table.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.