It might come as a shock, but it turns out a crucial part of our democracy suffers from systemic racism and general incompetence.
Here’s John Oliver rifling through all the inadequacies with jury duty, from its implicit biases to its tedious bureaucratic failures. Juries are supposed to be made up of our peers, but too often jury pools fail to reflect the diversity of the community they’re serving. Oliver runs through various reasons this happens, from the remnants of intentionally racist policies of the past, through the failings of both local government and the third-party private vendors who are now often hired to run the jury selection process. He also shares the story of Jacob, an incorrigible young scamp selected for “jerry duty” despite being in elementary school, and points out how bumper stickers are “Traffic Twitter.”
Want to feel good about things? Don’t watch a John Oliver segment. Want to learn or be reminded about some of the many significant problems undermining our society, and perhaps be motivated to help efforts to solve them? Then watch his show on HBO every Sunday night, or do what most people do, and just watch the main segment on YouTube the next morning.
Check it out.