Megyn Kelly and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad BlackFace

Megyn Kelly is not having a good week.

Earlier this week, during a roundtable discussion on the Today Show about offensive Halloween costumes, an impassioned Kelly said the following:

“You do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface for Halloween,” said Kelly, “or if you’re a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween. Back when I was a kid that was okay as long as you were dressing up as, like, a character.”

This lead to the expected outrage (because duh). Which lead to a tearful (of course) Kelly talking to Rowland Martin, apologizing for her comment.

*UPDATE: Megyn Kelly has since been let go following the Blackface comments...


via GIPHY

First of all, what, girl? What are you letting fall out of your mouth in the year of our Lord 2018?

When you were born, it was 1970, meaning civil rights was already happening. Sure, you could have lived in a pocket of the backwoods of America where this was acceptable (because I don't think you would dream of attempting any blackface in what people like to call an "urban" area.) but that isn't something to be proud of or to ever say in mixed company, let alone on a nationally syndicated morning show!

Also, way to smooth over your internalized racism with the phrase "when I was a kid."

Also, what Black person is dressing in white face, girl? That is not a thing. Whiteface, like reverse racism, is not a thing.

Also, why is this even still a conversation?
We talk about Blackface and Native American garb and hijabs and saris and how culture is not a costume every year, and yet every year, without fail, one of you (or many of you) decide to take it upon yourself to dress in blackface, put it on social media and then when you get dragged all over the internet and get read for filth, you tearfully post about how you didn't know this was racist and how this is not the person that you are.

I call BS. I say that this indeed IS the person that you are. You don't have to be physically lynching someone or dropping a slur to be racist, you apparently just have to have Halloween roll around.

Check out this bonus episode of The Reclaimed Podcast where I talk about it all, including some alternative ideas for costumes (since yall are still willing to put your careers on the line just to paint yourself brown). Thank me later.