Megyn Kelly apologized for her ignorant and offensive comments about blackface

Halloween is a little more than a week away, which means haunted houses, horror movies, and costume parties are on most of our agendas. Unfortunately, as is the case every year, offensive Halloween costumes are all but guaranteed to make an appearance. And it seems as though some people are still confused about why certain costumes should be off limits.

On the October 23rd episode of Megyn Kelly Today, host Megyn Kelly revealed that she doesn’t understand why wearing blackface on Halloween is racist. She began the segment with a story about how the U.K.’s Kent University has banned certain offensive costumes this year. Many of the banned outfits made the list because they perpetuate racist stereotypes; “Mexican” clothes like sombreros and sarapes were prohibited, as were Native American costumes. But Kelly questioned the idea that a Halloween get-up could be racist, and said that “political correctness has gone amok.”

"What is racist?" Kelly asked the three other panelists on the show. "Because you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface for Halloween or a black person who puts on whiteface [sic] for Halloween, but back when I was a kid that was okay as long as you were dressing up as, like, a character."

Panelists Jenna Bush Hagar and Melissa Rivers argued that there is a line when it comes to costumes and that people should try not to offend others with their selections. But Kelly doubled down on her argument. She cited Luann de Lesseps from Real Housewives of New York, a white woman who was criticized for dressing as Diana Ross on Halloween 2017.

"I felt like, 'Who doesn't love Diana Ross? She wants to look like Diana Ross for one day,'" Kelly said. "I don't know how that got racist on Halloween." 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY1Hf2taOPY?feature=oembed

Kelly is using a common defense of racist and offensive costumes—it’s homage, so it should be okay. However, what this line of reasoning conveniently ignores is that white people have been dressing as racist caricatures to mock people of color for centuries. As Vox notes, in the 19th century, white actors routinely painted their skin black for Jim Crow-era minstrel shows, in which black characters were depicted as exaggerated, dehumanizing stereotypes. White people darkening their skin for costumes has a very real and painful history in this country.

And, yet again we have white people discussing why blackface is offensive with no black people on panel to explain why white people JUST SHOULDN'T DO IT!

— MickeyD (@Mickey_D66) October 23, 2018

I cannot believe the ignorance on this in 2018. You are on national television. You have a responsibility to educate yourself on social issues @megynkelly. This is so damaging. https://t.co/R7UJzkDDG9 https://t.co/7qFkqGHfGJ

— Padma Lakshmi (@PadmaLakshmi) October 23, 2018

Blackface 👏🏿is👏🏿racism👏🏿end👏🏿of👏🏿story👏🏿. Black👏🏿people👏🏿aren’t👏🏿caricatures.

— Sibongile Nkosana (@sbngle) October 23, 2018

After the swift and widespread backlash to her comments, Kelly issued an internal apology to colleagues, the contents of which has been obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. In it, she wrote, “One of the wonderful things about my job is that I get the chance to express and hear a lot of opinions. Today is one of those days where listening carefully to other points of view, including from friends and colleagues, is leading me to rethink my own views.”

She continued, "I realize now that such behavior [blackface] is indeed wrong, and I am sorry. The history of blackface in our culture is abhorrent; the wounds too deep. I’ve never been a 'pc' kind of person—but I understand that we do need to be more sensitive in this day and age. Particularly on race and ethnicity issues which, far from being healed, have been exacerbated in our politics over the past year. This is a time for more understanding, love, sensitivity and honor, and I want to be part of that. I look forward to continuing that discussion."

Kelly has yet to make a public, non-internal apology for her comments.

Let this incident serve as an important reminder that other cultures are not costumes, no matter what day of the year it is.