‘Oh No, Baby, What is You Doing?’: Megyn Kelly Catches Hell for Asking What’s Wrong with Black Face on Halloween
On Tuesday, Megyn Kelly did a segment about the “crackdown” on Halloween costumes by political correctness, along with former First Daughter and NBC correspondent Jenna Bush Hager, producer and red carpet fashion staple Melissa Rivers, and MSNBC correspondent Jacob Soboroff. Partway through the discussion, Kelly pondered what exactly is so bad about white people wearing blackface. The studio audience did not react negatively in real time. But after the segment, Twitter sure did.
Beginning with a story from the UK, Kelly showed costumes like a cowboy or a Native American, that the student union at the University of Kent has deemed offensive and banned. “Isn’t the whole purpose of Halloween to dress up and pretend you are someone else?” Kelly asked, to audience applause.
After some crosstalk about it, she added “I just feel like it’s so absurd, I mean who comes up with these rules,” said Kelly, “and you know what they’re saying you can dress as… Letters of the alphabet.”
“I said Doug and I are going to go together. I can go as F and he can go as U,” said Kelly to big applause.
With the audience on board they moved on to more offensive costumes, and Soboroff mentioned racism. “If you’re going to dress like an idiot, act like an idiot, and actually dress and be racist then somebody should say something to somebody,” he said, “but you should still be able to dress like a moron.”
“But what is racist?” said Kelly. “Because you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface on Halloween, or a black person who puts on whiteface on Halloween. When I was a kid that was okay as long as you were dressing up like a character.”
Both Jenna Bush Hager and Melissa Rivers gently pushed back, with Rivers saying that “normal people know” where the line is, and Hager saying that “there are limits to how far you want to go because you’re making people feel bad.”
Kelly, though, brought it back, bringing up a Real Housewives of New York controversy after a white star on the show wore a Diana Ross costume.
“People said that was racist and, I don’t know I felt like… who doesn’t love Diana Ross, she wants to look like Diana Ross for one day,” said Kelly. “I don’t know how that got racist on Halloween.”
Kelly did not bring up the incredibly racist history of white people wearing blackface in America, nor did anyone else.
Twitter had this to say:
Megyn Kelly is defending blackface so good morning, America <__<
— Sophia (@SophiaTesfaye) October 23, 2018
oh no, baby, what is you doing? https://t.co/55DLL5JZ4L
— siraj hashmi (@SirajAHashmi) October 23, 2018
I thought this might have been an exaggeration, but no, Megyn Kelly is really doing a “I don’t see what’s so offensive about blackface” https://t.co/xtECr43UMg
— jamelle g-g-ghoulie 👻 (@jbouie) October 23, 2018
“Normal people know where that line is…” Thank you, Melissa Rivers…too bad @MegynKelly isn’t normal and perhaps not a person.
— Karen Hunter (@karenhunter) October 23, 2018
Megyn Kelly show Producer: Who can we get to talk intelligently about blackface at Halloween?
Other MK producer who clearly DGAF: How about the daughters of Joan Rivers and George W. Bush?!
First producer, cracking open a Fireball: Perfect. https://t.co/4GsvR4mbuB
— R. Eric Thomas (@oureric) October 23, 2018
Megyn Kelly got on Fox News to demand Santa be a white man and is now saying she doesn’t understand the big deal about blackface. The racism is absurd.
— Kimberly Nicole Foster (@KimberlyNFoster) October 23, 2018
How is this conversation occurring with no people of color? I mean, I know how. But how? https://t.co/eGy4mq32Oq
— Anthony F. Irwin (@AnthonyIrwinLA) October 23, 2018
Ohhhhhhhhhhh!!!! So Halloween is like a “bye week’ for racism…. Like a one day Purge for blackface…..GOT IT! https://t.co/0ZPBGHJ6U0
— Roy Wood Jr- Ex Jedi (@roywoodjr) October 23, 2018
Dear @megynkelly — you and I are approximately the same age. Blackface was NOT okay when we were kids. Take it from a big-hearted boy who just wanted to show his love for Nipsey Russell on the worst Halloween of my life. https://t.co/pnsk0WmuTw
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) 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
Watch the clip above, courtesy of NBC.
[Featured image via screengrab]
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